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OGEECHEE  CROSS-EIRINGS 


a  movci 


By   R.   M.IJOHNSTON 


AUTHOR  OP 


MR.  ABSALOM    BILLINGSLEA  "    "  DUKESBOROUGH    TALES 
"  OLD   MARK   LANGSTON  "    ETC. 


"■Entys'd 
To  take  to  Ms  neio  love,  and  leave  her  old  despys'd  " 

Faerie  Qckenk 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW    YORK 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS,   FRANKLIN    SQUARE 

1889 


Copyright,  1889,  by  Harper  &  Brothers. 
AU  rights  reserved. 


J  13 

T 


TO  THE  MEMORY 

OF 

RIGHT  REV.  GEORGE  FOSTER  PIERCE 

WHO  DURING   MANY   YEARS   WAS   THE   AUTHOR's    CLOSE    NEIGHBOR  AND  FRIEND 
WHOSE   LOVE    OF   THE   HUMOROUS,  BOTH  AS  A  HEARER    AND  A  REHEARSER 

WHOSE    MARVELLOUS    PERSONAL    BEAUTY,   WHOSE    DEVOUT,  INNOCENT  %. 

LIFE,    AND    WHOSE    UNRIVALLED    ELOQUENCE    MADE    HIM    OP  ' 

ALL    MEN    IN    HIS    NATIVE    STATE    DURING    HIS    TIME 
THE  ONE  MOST  ADMIRED,  LOVED,  AND   REVERED 

THIS  STORY 


10  ^ff^ctiouatelg  CDebicoteir 


M542491 

J 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAQB 


'''And  ivhen  you're  t/ioo\  I  got  another  gold  piece 

for  you '" Frontispiece 

How  the  May  plantation  was  farmed 7 

"  'Now  they  may  he  soms  hind  of  men  that  lach- 

eldrin  suit '  " -[9 

A  morning  at  Mrs.  Ingram's 27 

Mr.  Bullington's  wedding  countenance 57 

Allen  Swinger  and  Jerry  Pound 69 

"  '  And  donH  he  look  splendid  f  " 73 

"  '  Ilime  Jyner,  want  to  know  how  come  I  here  f ' "  107 
" '  .DonH  talk  to  me  about  your  lots  and  lotteries^ 

female  /'  " 125 


OGEECHEE    CROSS-FIRINGS, 


I. 

The  Joyiiers,  besides  fifty  negroes,  owned 
a  thousand  acres  of  Ogeechee  bottom-land, 
extending  southward  to  the  Mays,  who,  with 
as  many  slaves,  paid  taxes  on  over  thirteen 
hundred  acres.  The  mansion  of  the  former, 
square,  two-storied,  with  attic,  was  situate  a 
few  rods  from  the  pubhc  thoroughfare  lead- 
ing from  Augusta  on  the  Savannah,  through 
Gateston,  the  county -seat,  to  Milledge^dlle, 
then  the  capital  of  the  state.  In  a  similar 
house,  with  a  somewhat  more  tasteful  piazza, 
a  mile  below,  a  little  removed  from  a  neigh- 
borhood road  extending  down  the  river-bank 
to  the  Shoals,  dwelt  the  Mays.  Equidistant, 
near  the  Gateston  road,  were  the  Dosters,  in 
1 


2  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

their  story-and-a-half  house,  who,  with  a  doz- 
en slaves  and  about  three  hundi^ed  acres  of 
land,  roUing  and  much  thinner  than  their 
neighbors',  were  doing  at  least  as  well  as 
could  have  been  expected.  The  Joyners  and 
Mays  had  been  intimately  friendly  always, 
and  no  neighbor  had  ever  beheved  himself  so 
dull  a  prophet  as  not  to  have  foreseen,  long 
before  WiUiam  and  Harriet  May  and  Hiram 
and  Ellen  Joyner  were  old  enough  to  be 
tliinking  about  sweethearts,  that  those  two 
families,  hke  their  fine  plantations,  were  des- 
tined in  time  to  be  united,  and  by  a  double 
bond. 

The  heads  of  both  these  famihes  had  de- 
ceased. So  had  that  of  the  Dosters,  the  last, 
besides  his  widow,  leaving  Thomas,  lately 
grown  to  manhood,  and  two  younger  chil- 
dren. At  the  period  in  which  occurred  what 
this  story  is  meant  to  tell,  Hiram  and  Will- 
iam were  about  twenty-two,  and  Ellen  and 
Harriet  nineteen  and  eighteen. 

But  for  the  demise  of  Mr.  Doster,  Thomas 
would  have  had  a  better  education.  This 
event  made  necessary  his  leaving  the  state 
college  at  the  end  of  the  junior  year,  in  order 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  3 

to  conduct  the  family  business.     To  the  ne- 
cessity that  called  liim  away  he  yielded  with 
more  reluctance  because  he  was  to  leave  be- 
hind a  very  dear  cousin,  with  whom  the  ex- 
pectation had  been  to  study  and  enter  into  a 
partnership  for  the  practice  of  the  law.    Yet 
in  this  while  he  had  learned  quite  as  much 
of  books  as  either  of  the  young  men  his  more 
favored  neighbors,  who  after  leaving  the  acad- 
emy had  been  two  years  at  the  University  of 
Virginia,  where  they  had  spent  money  to 
such  figures  that  their  mothers  readily  as- 
sented to  their  proposal  to  return  home  with- 
out academic  degrees.     For  three  years  past 
they  had  been  managing  in  some  sort  the 
goodly   estates   left   by   their   fathers;    but 
some  said  that  but  for  their  negro  foremen 
the    plantations    would    deteriorate    faster. 
Much  of  their  tune  had  been  spent  in  fox- 
hunting, bird-hunting,  and  other  field-sports, 
in  horseback  journeyings  to  Milledgeville  and 
Augusta,  and  in  other  ways  which  they  re- 
garded their  fortunes  ample  enough  to  allow. 
Each,  however,  had  reasonably  good  moral 
character,  and  was  fi^ank  enough  to  admit  to 
his  mother  sometimes  that,  compared  with 


4  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS, 

that  of  the  Dosters,  their  place  was  not  kept 
up  sufficiently,  and  that,  upon  ground  well 
known  to  be  less  productive,  the  Doster 
crops  were  better.  Yet  all  along  it  had  been 
hoped  that  after  a  while,  particularly  when 
they  had  married  and  settled  down  to  steady 
business,  Hiram  and  WiUiam  would  make 
good,  energetic,  prosperous  citizens  hke  theh^ 
fathers. 

The  Mays  were  tall,  slender,  and  fair ;  the 
Joyners  of  middle  height,  dark  hair  and  com- 
plexion ;  Ellen  somewhat  petite,  her  brother 
stout  and  strongly  set.  The  girls  were  con- 
sidered quite  pretty  after  their  separate 
styles,  and  their  brothers  would  have  been 
slow  to  beheve  that  Tom  Doster,  midway 
between  them  as  to  figure  and  complexion, 
was  considered  by  most  people  rather  better- 
looking  than  either.  The  education  of  the 
girls  was  excellent  for  those  times.  It  was 
only  about  a  year  back  when  they  had  come 
out  of  the  female  academy  at  Gateston, 
wherein  they  had  spent  all  their  years  since 
very  young  girlhood.  This  academy,  found- 
ed and  kept  by  Rev.  Mr.  Wyman,  a  Baptist 
clergyman,  native  of  Vermont,  had,  and  most 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  5 

deservedly,  a  very  high  reputation,  that  had 
extended  throughout  the  state  and  into  sev- 
eral adjoining.  All  branches  taught  in  New- 
England  seminaries,  including  music,  draw- 
ing, and  painting,  were  in  the  course  which 
both  the  girls  had  made,  not  only  with  satis- 
faction, but  high  honors.  Ellen  played  on 
the  piano  uncommonly  well,  and  Harriet, 
less  skilful  there,  was  a  sweeter  singer.  The 
young  men  were  quite  proud  of  these  accom- 
plishments of  their  sisters,  but  for  which  it 
was  thought  that  they  might  have  exerted 
themselves  more  for  their  own  development. 
As  it  was,  they  held  to  their  fox-hunting  and 
other  amusements,  each  satisfied  apparently 
with  the  thought  that  when  the  time  should 
come  for  subtracting  from  the  other's  family 
he  would  give  in  exchange  a  value  regarded 
equal  to  that  which  he  would  receive. 

Thomas  Doster  had  made  it  appear  very 
soon  after  leaving  college  that  this  move- 
ment meant  business.  The  vigor  and  econ- 
omy with  which  he  had  managed  the  farm 
were  such  that  in  three  years  enough  had 
been  laid  up  to  purchase  two  hundred  more 
acres  and  a  family  of  negroes.     For  some 


6  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

considerable  time  people  had  been   saying 
what  a  fine  young  man  Tom  Doster  was. 
The  Dosters,  belonging  to  the  same  church, 
visited  with  the  other  two  famihes,  but  not 
nearly  so  often  as  those  with  each  other. 
The  young  men,  particularly  William  May, 
who    was    of    heartier    temperament    than 
Hiram,  rather  liked  Tom,  and  in  their  own 
families  might  go  so  far  as  to  admit  that  his 
example,  if    such  a  thing  were   necessary, 
might  be  worth  imitating.     If  they  felt  hke 
patronizing  him,  they  could  not   do   so  to 
much  extent,  something  in  his  manner,  ex- 
cept when  in  presence  of  the  girls,  putting 
such  deportment  in  restraint.     Every  week- 
day he  was  to  be  seen,  in  his  plain,  home- 
made, well-fitting  clothes,  where  either  the 
plough  hands  or  the  hoe  hands  were  at  work, 
and  the  passing  by  of  old  or  yoimg,  male  or 
female,  seemed  to  affect  in  no  wise  the  feel- 
ing of  manhood  as,  thus  homely  clad,  he  kept 
at  his  work.     Eight  often,  as  the  girls  with 
their  brothers,  or  one  with  him  of  the  other, 
were  riding  past,  he  would  take  off  his  broad- 
brimmed  hat,  return  their  salutation,  and,  if 
happening  to  be  near  the  fence,  come  forward 


f^:  > 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  9 

at  notice  of  disposition  to  linger  for  a  brief 
chat.  On  Sundays  when  there  was  meeting 
at  Horeb,  a  mile  or  so  inland  from  the  Joyn- 
ers',  he  put  on  his  best,  and  looked  the  equal 
of  anybody  there.  Occasionally,  when  one 
of  the  girls  had  ridden  there  on  horseback, 
accompanied  by  her  brother,  he  proposed  to 
escort  her  home,  and  —  but  not  often  —  ac- 
cepted the  invitation  to  dinner  which  it  was 
customary  in  all  country  neighborhoods  to 
extend  on  such  occasions. 

"  Tom's  a  stirring  fellow,"  said  Will  May 
to  Harriet  one  day,  when,  after  some  conver- 
sation with  him  as  he  sat  upon  his  fence,  they 
were  passing  on. 

"•  Yes,"  she  answered ;  ''  I  think  Tom  Dos- 
ter  is  a  very  promising  young  man;  hand- 
some too,  even  in  his  homespun  clothes.  I 
suspect  that  he  would  have  made  a  good 
lawyer." 

"  Best  as  it  is ;  indeed  lucky,  in  my  opin- 
ion. There's  no  good  in  a  fellow  trying  to 
rise  too  far  above  his  raising.  It's  well  for 
Tom  Doster  that  he  could  not  go  to  the  bar. 
He's  proud  enough,  hard  as  he  has  to  work, 
and  he  cannot,  if  he  ever  tries,  conceal  his 


10  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

aspiring  nature.  I  like  Tom  very  well  my- 
self as  a  neighbor ;  but  Hiram,  especially  of 
late,  doesn't.  Hiram  says  tbat  Tom  is  as 
proud  as  if  be  owned  both  our  plantations 
and  bis  little  patch  of  ground  besides." 

''I  don't  see  why  he  might  not  feel  as 
proud  as  other  people,  brother  Will.  He's 
young,  handsome,  inteUigent,  industrious, 
and  of  as  good  family  as  any,  if  they  do  have 
less  property.  I  should  not  call  pride  the 
feeling  that  keeps  him  from  looking  up  to 
those  who  are  in  more  favored  conditions.  I 
should  rather  name  it  a  sense  of  freedom, 
which  every  man  who  feels  himself  to  be  a 
gentleman  is  bound  to  have." 

''Yes;  and  that's  just  the  way,  as  Hiram 
says,  that  Ellen  talks,  and  both  of  you  are 
rather  imprudent  in  the  way  you  treat  Tom 
Doster;  and  I  tell  you  now,  Harriet,  that 
Hham  especially  doesn't  hke  it." 

''  Oho !  He  doesn't !  nor  do  you,  I  see. 
Well,  Ellen  and  I  must  amend  our  speech, 
and  be  more  circumspect  in  our  behavior, 
even  if  we  cannot  help  our  tastes  and  man- 
ners." 

Then  she  looked  back  with  mock  regret 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  11 

toward  Tom,  who  was  working  away  as  if  he 
had  forgotten  having  seen  and  talked  with 
them. 

"  Come,  Harriet,  yon  needn't  put  on  airs." 

"•  Of  course  not,  before  my  brother  Will, 
and  especially  before  Hiram,  of  whose  dis- 
pleasure he  warns  me.  But,"  she  added,  to 
tease  her  brother,  "  they  do  say  that  Tom's 
cousin  has  grown  to  be  handsomer  even  than 
him.  I'll  have  to  see  for  myself  before  I  can 
believe  it." 

"-  Wasn't  that  a  pretty  come  off?  He  and 
Tom  were  to  be  two  great  lawyers,  you  know ; 
and  their  grand  scheme  has  wound  up  by  Tom 
being,  as  his  father  before  him  was,  a  common, 
hard-working  farmer,  and  his  cousin  a  Meth- 
odist preacher." 

"  It  was  rather  strange.  As  for  poor  Tom, 
the  disappointment  was  unavoidable,  and, 
hke  a  true  man  always  will  in  such  cases,  he 
has  borne  it  not  only  patiently,  but  cheerful- 
ly. His  cousin  Henry,  I  doubt  not,  is  follow- 
ing what  he  beheves  to  be  the  line  of  his  duty, 
and  if  so,  that  shows  him  to  be  a  true  man 

also." 

''  Everybody  to  his  notion.    Let  us  get  on." 


12  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

They  urged  their  horses  to  a  brisker  pace,  that 
soon  brought  them  to  the  Joyners',  where 
they  tarried  awhile  before  returning  home. 

Henry  Doster  was  son  of  Tom's  uncle, 
who  dwelt  several  miles  beyond  Gateston, 
and  whose  estate  was  somewhat  larger  than 
that  of  his  deceased  brother.  Everybody,  his 
parents,  even  himself,  had  been  expecting, 
ever  since  he  first  entered  college,  and  until 
just  before  he  was  to  leave,  that  he  was  to 
become  a  lawyer.  But  about  a  couple  of 
months  before  graduation,  at  the  head  of  his 
class,  during  a  revival  meeting  of  the  Meth- 
odist church  in  Athens,  the  seat  of  the  state 
university,  he,  who  always  had  been  piously 
inclined,  became  convinced  that  he  had  a 
call  to  the  sacred  ministry.  His  parents,  not 
church  members,  but  rather  affiliating  with 
the  Baptists,  felt  a  double  disappointment. 
Yet  they  loved  and  respected  him  too  well  to 
complain.  He  was  as  gentle  as  he  was  hand- 
some and  gifted.  While  in  college  he  had 
the  good -fortune  to  be  popular  both  with 
faculty  and  students,  because  he  deported 
himself  just  as  he  ought  before  all.  Of  ohve 
complexion,  brown  eyes  and  hair,  his  face  on 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS,  13 

occasion  would  light  into  redness  as  decided 
as  ever  painted  the  fairest  cheek.  When  he 
was  in  animated  declamation  his  form  of  five 
feet  ten  swayed  with  a  grace  more  engaging 
because  unstudied,  even  unconscious,  and  his 
voice,  at  all  times  sweet,  rang  sonorous  and 
true  as  a  clarion's.  His  college  mates  had 
prophesied  for  him  an  eminent  career  at  the 
bar,  and  many  felt  regret  more  than  surprise 
at  the  course  which,  suddenly,  as  it  seemed, 
he  had  resolved  to  pursue.  At  Commence- 
ment he  made  his  modest  valedictory  with 
much  eclat,  smilingly  bade  adieu  to  all  his  as- 
sociates and  acquaintance ;  then  returned  to 
his  home,  and  went  to  preparing  himself  for 
the  solemn  work  that  he  was  to  undertake. 


II. 

The  two  leading  religious  denominations, 
as  now,  were  then  nearly  equally  divided  in 
middle  Georgia,  the  ascendency  held  by  the 
Methodists  in  the  towns  and  villages  being 
balanced  by  that  of  the  Baptists  in  the  rural 
districts.  Not  very  many  of  the  clergy  of  eith- 
er had  received  a  college  education,  yet  many 
of  them  were  very  efficient  preachers,  and 
some  eloquent  to  a  high  degree.  The  Meth- 
odists were  well  pleased  at  the  accession  of  a 
young  man  in  whom  was  such  goodly  prom- 
ise. Brief  prehminaries  were  required  for 
the  pulpit,  and  only  a  few  months  after  the 
time  when  Henry  Doster  had  counted  upon 
applying  for  admission  to  the  bar  he  was 
preaching  the  gospel.  So  young,  and  modest 
as  young,  it  was  thought  well  that  for  the 
first  year  he  should  work  under  the  guidance 
of  one  of  the  older  and  more  pronounced 
preachers.  Fortunate  to  both  it  seemed 
that  the  Rev.  Allen  Swinger,  a  native  of  the 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  15 

county,  was  holding  his  headquarters  in 
Gateston,  and  to  him,  as  assistant  in  his  cir- 
cuit, Henry  was  assigned.  This  gentleman, 
very  tall  and  muscular,  had  been  in  his  youth 
a  noted  fighter,  having  won  his  wife,  so  the 
tradition  went,  by  his  conquest  of  a  formida- 
ble rival,  and  he  had  not  left  behind  all  of  his 
native  combativeness  when  he  advanced  upon 
a  higher  field.  He  was  fond  of  wielding  what 
he  styled  his  sledge-hammer,  not  only  against 
sinners  in  general,  but  pronounced  opponents 
of  his  own  faith,  of  the  entu^e  certitude  of 
which  he  never  had  felt  a  doubt  since  the  day 
on  which  he  embraced  it  first.  Yet  he  was, 
or  he  meant  to  be,  as  pious  as  he  was  aggres- 
sive, and  he  cordially  beheved  that  his  in- 
terest in  the  welfare  of  souls,  outsiders  and 
nominal  insiders,  was  as  good  as  the  best. 
Many  and  many  a  time,  with  emphasis,  would 
he  talk  about  thus  : 

''  If  Allen  Swinger  know  anything  at  all 
about  hisself ,  his  own  self,  and  if  lie  don't,  the 
question  arise  who  do,  but  if  so  be,  I  am  not 
aginst  none  of  their  souls'  salvations,  if  they 
would  only  git  their  consents  to  give  up  their 
mean  ways,  and  then  git  right  straight  up  and 


16  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

come  aright  straight  along  where  everybody 
that  ain't  a  actuil  a  bhnded  with  predijice  is 
obleeged  to  see,  plain  as  open  and  shet,  is  the 
way  they  got  to  f  oiler  so  they  mayn't  git  con- 
swined  not  only  to  fire  but  brimstone  sprin- 
kled on  top  of  that,  which  every  sence  I  ben 
converted  myself,  hke  a  bran'  snatched  from 
the  burnin',  I  ben  astonished  that  anybody 
could  ever  be  such  a  big  fool  as  to  think  he 
could  stand  ary  one,  let  alone  both.  Now  as 
for  Henry  Dawster,  if  he  wasn't  quite  so  thin 
skin,  and  if  he  could  get  his  consents  to  pitch 
in  four-an'-a-half^  aginst  worldlyans,  and  be 
more  vigious  on  them  Babtisses,  which  if  they 
ain't  headed  they  goin'  to  take  this  whole 
country,  same  hke  the  sand  of  Egyp',  him  and 
me  together  could  git  up  rewivals  a'most  a  con- 
stant. But  I  can't  yit  git  him  to  make  charg- 
es on  'em.  That  whut  I  call  comin'  down 
out  the  pulpit  and  marchin'  right  on  to 
'em,  right  and  left.  Yit  he's  a  good  religious 
boy,  same  as  a  good  Meth'dis'  woman  that 
don't  know  how  to  be  anything  else,  and  I 
love  him  a'most  a  like  he  were  my  own  child, 
and,  in  time,  and  speshual,  when  he  git  hisself 

*  Mr.  Swinger  by  this  phrase  meant /<?re  and  aft. 


OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRIJSfGS.  17 

a  wife,  I  shall  count  on  his  spreadin'  hisself 
accordin'  to  his  talons,  which,  jest  betwix  me 
and  you,  to  go  no  furder,  he's  got  a  plenty, 
more  than  any  one  man's  sheer,  when  he  have 
the  expeunce  to  go  along  with  'em." 

Unhke  as  were  these  two,  a  friendship 
amounting  to  affection  united  them.  The 
absence  of  everything  hke  envy  in  Mr.  Swin- 
ger, instead  the  bounding  pride  he  felt  in 
Henry's  superior  gifts,  and  his  eagerness  to 
help  in  such  employment  as  he  beheved  would 
develop  and  exhibit  them  to  best  advantage ; 
on  the  other  side,  the  young  man's  ready  per- 
formance of  every  service  assigned,  his  confi- 
dence in  the  single-minded  integrity  with 
which  Mr.  Swinger  deported  himself  toward 
him,  bound  them,  in  not  long  time,  closely 
and  fondly.  In  spite  of  his  general  stern- 
ness of  manner  and  speech,  Mr.  Swinger 
had  much  softness  of  spirit  and  considerable 
humor.  The  submission  of  a  sinner  or  any 
other  kind  of  enemy  would  melt  his  ire  to 
tenderness  instantly.  He  could  tell  a  joke 
with  excellent  effect,  and  he  would  do  so 
even  when  himself  was  the  butt  of  its  ridi- 
cule, and  his  dehght  at  such  rehearsal  was 
2 


18  OGEE  CHE E   CROSS-FIRINGS, 

equal  to  Ms  hearers'  in  the  laughter  thus  pro- 
voked. He  beheved,  and  he  so  assured  the 
young  preacher  often,  that  he  could  never 
make  important  continued  headway  in  his 
profession  as  long  as  he  remained  single. 
His  talks  upon  the  subject  discovered  some 
romance  in  his  being. 

''Bacheldrin,  Henry  Dawster,  now  they 
may  be  some  kind  of  men  that  bacheldiin 
suit ;  but  they  monst'ous  few,  and  a  preacher, 
speshual  Meth'dis',  not  among  'em.  Make  no 
odds  how  much  a  young  preacher  in  the  first 
off-start  in  his  mad  careers,  so  to  speak,  may 
think  more  of  hisself  than  other  people  think 
he's  hable  to,  and  he  mayn't  feel  hke  he  want 
to  bother  and  hamper  hisseK  with  one  single 
female  section  of  people,  yit  he'll  find  in  time 
that  the  time  will  come,  and  that  mayby  sud- 
dent,  when  his  holt  will  begin  to  loosen,  and 
it'll  keep  on  a-loosenin'  tell  he'll  have  to  let  her 
drap.  And  it's  speshual  the  case  when  he 
have  good  looks,  but  which  I've  never  ben 
oneasy  about  your  settin'  Tar  Eiver  afii-e  on 
them  score.  Yit  so  it  is,  and  I  have  yit  to 
see  the  bachelder  preacher  that  won't  knock 
under  in  the  course  of  time.     Because  for 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  21 

why?  In  every  combunity  that  I've  ever 
ben  anywhere  they  always  girls,  and  not  only 
them,  but  widders  and  old  maids  of  all  age 
and  description,  that  in  a  case  hke  the  pres- 
ent they  everlastin'  workin'  up  shoe-shppers, 
or  money-pusses,  or  dressin'-gownds,  or  neck- 
hankchers,  or  somethin'  of  some  kind  that  no 
nation  of  men  of  no  kind  ever  had  any  use 
for,  but  which  in  the  first  place  that  they'U 
go  to  conwince  him,  if  he  don't  look  out, 
that  he's  too  good  to  go  and  preach  to  com- 
mon poor  people  at  ill-convenant  places. 
And^  at  last,  he'll  see  that  sech  foohshness 
have  to  stop,  and  'stid  of  sech  onuseless  arti- 
cles, which  nobody,  much  less  a  Meth'dis' 
preacher,  have  no  yearthly  necessity  for,  he'U 
find  that  what  he  want  is  a  ivife^  not  only  for 
company,  but  for  makin',  and  mendin',  and 
keep  him  decent  respectable.  Now  it  ain't 
that  I  would  ricommend  any  young  man  to 
go  into  the  very  market  of  young  women,  as 
it  were,  like  he  was  after  a  horse  or  a  piece 
of  prop'ty.  No,  sir ;  and  if  a  man  is  any 
account  he'll  wait,  no  matter  how  long  time 
it  take,  tell  he  fall  dead  in  love  with  jes  one 
lone  partic'lar  one  by  herself,  and  feel  hke, 


22  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

thoo  every  bone  in  Ms  natur',  that  she's  the 
onhest  pmk  of  perfection  they  is,  make  no 
deffunce  how  much  the  gittin'  of  married 
bound  to  take  the  aige  off  sech  as  that.     No, 
sir ;  and   I  tell  yon   now,  Henry  Dawster, 
'twer'n't  for  sech  as  that,  that  aige  would  be 
took  off  a  heap  sooner  and  a  heap  more  of  it. 
Yes,  sir,  my  boy,  wait  tell  she  strike  you  a 
centre  shot,  and  you  feel  like  the  ground  ain't 
hardly  good  enough  for  her  to  walk  on  it.    Of 
course  a  feller  bound  to  find  out  in  time,  and 
when   it's  all  over,  that   his    wife    ain't   of 
that  angel  kind  of  women  love-tales  tells 
about ;  and  you  mayn't  beheve  it,  but  often 
I've  sot  up  a  mighty  nigh  all  night  with  a 
toller  candle,  and  sometimes  nothin'  but  a 
hght'rd  knot  fire,  a-purusin'  AJonzer  and  Mel- 
issy,  and  The  Bandit's  Bride,  and  sech,  and 
cried,  and  wantin'  to  be  thar,  and,  jerkin'  out 
my  knife,  hack  them  villion's  heads  off,  and 
takin'  them  women  off  somewheres  and  live 
together,  jes  me  and  them,  by  ourselves.     Yit 
I  know,  well  as  anybody  that  ain't  a  horned 
fool  obleeged  to  know,  he  can't  expect  a  wife 
who  have  the  keer  of  a  family  to  be  always 
a-settin'  up  in  the  parlor  mth  her  best  frock 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  23 

on  a-listenin'  to  him  a  eyerlastin'  cotin'  kiss 
verses,  like  he  used  to  did.  And^  besides, 
what's  a  heap  more,  if  anything,  for  the  argy- 
ment  of  this  p'int  of  the  case,  he  have  ben 
conwinced  long  before  now,  and  that  without 
her  a-tellin'  him,  that  he  ain't,  nor  he  never 
were,  nother  the  General  Wash'n't'n  nor  the 
Jul'us  Caesar  he  want  to  make  her  beheve 
when  she  took  him.  But^  Henry  Dawster, 
sech  idees  does  a  man  good  in  the  first  off- 
start  ;  and  when  he's  done  married  and  settled 
down,  fa'r  and  squar',  if  he'll  be  true,  and  he 
won't  be  too  f ault-findy,  he'll  yit  think  his  own 
wife  is  the  best  of  the  whole  kerhoot  of  'em, 
jes  as  every  married  man  had  ought  to  think 
of  his  wife ;  and  as  for  old  bachelders,  he'll 
always  feel  sorry  for  any  sech  a  cold,  froggy 
set,  like  I've  ben  sorry  for  'em  ever  sence  me 
and  Hester  took  up  together.  iVo,  sir ;  or,  I 
may  ruther  say,  yes^  sir ;  you  should  ought  to 
wait  tell  you  find  one  you  think  is  a  Wenus 
or  a  Juberter,  or  whut  them  po-uts  calls  'em 
in  their  po'try ;  and  when  you  do,  then  f ar'- 
well  world." 

It  was  interesting  to  see  the  relations  be- 
tween them,  one  with  the  unstudied  speech 


24  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

and  manners  of  a  rude  pioneer,  the  other  with 
those  of  a  culture  needed  for  the  work  of 
new  social  conditions.  The  younger,  while 
he  could  not  but  be  amused  at  what  must 
soon  become  obsolete,  yet  reverenced  with  all 
his  heart  the  honest  earnestness  that  persisted 
in  methods  which  he  would  not  have  known 
how  to  attempt  to  change.  The  elder  was  as 
courageously  upright  and  as  fondly  affection- 
ate as  he  was  barbarous  in  outward  appear- 
ance and  demeanor.  The  love  he  had  for  his 
protege,  especially  his  eager  wish  that  he 
should  make  an  early  happy  marriage,  led 
him  often  to  talk  of  his  own  young  time  and 
of  his  conjugal  hfe,  in  which  it  was  easy  to 
be  seen  that  much  of  true  love's  fruition  had 
fallen  to  his  lot. 

The  new  preacher  boarded  with  the  In- 
grams,  whose  handsome  mansion,  in  a  grove 
of  red  oak  and  black-jack,  stood  at  the  head 
of  a  street  called  Maiden  Lane,  on  the  side  of 
which,  where  it  made  a  bend,  was  Mr.  Wy- 
man's  academy.  Behind,  extending  south 
and  southwest,  was  their  plantation  of  two 
thousand  acres.  Here  also  had  boarded 
Harriet  and  Ellen  while   at  school ;   for  in 


OGEE  GHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  25 

those  times  families  who  were  at  the  highest 
in  property  and  social  position,  for  the  sake 
of  the  school  and  the  chm^ches,  took  board- 
ers, and  that  at  nominal  charges,  considering 
the  hying  dispensed  by  them.  Mrs.  Ingram, 
a  niece  of  Mrs.  May,  had  been  brought  up  a 
Baptist,  but  after  her  intermarriage  had  ac- 
cepted the  faith  of  her  husband,  a  Methodist 
class -leader.  As  neither  of  the  congrega- 
tions could  afford  to  hold  pubhc  worship 
every  Sunday,  the  members  of  each  common- 
ly attended  that  of  the  other  on  alternate 
meeting-days,  notwithstanding  the  oft  discus- 
sion of  denominational  differences.  These, 
even  sometimes  when  acrimonious,  were  ig- 
nored in  neighborly  intercourse ;  for  indeed 
the  Rev.  Mr.  BuUington,  a  near  neighbor  of 
the  Ogeechee  Dosters,  who  served  both  Horeb 
and  the  Baptist  church  in  Grateston,  was  be- 
lieved by  his  brethren  to  know,  when  duly 
roused,  about  as  well  as  Mr.  Swinger,  how  to 
meet  blows  and  to  give.  Mr.  Wyman  not 
often  preached  there,  suspecting  that  his 
brother  Bulhngton's  feehngs  were  a  httle 
hurt  sometimes  at  the  praise  bestowed  upon 
his  more  learned  discourses,  and  when  he  did, 


26  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

recognizing  the  policy  and  the  duty,  as  far  as 
possible,  of  being  all  things  to  all  men,  sel- 
dom preached  mere  doctrinal  sermons. 

Our  girls  occasionally  visited  the  Ingrams, 
Ellen  as  freely,  because  she  knew  that  she 
was  as  welcome,  as  Haniet.  Henry  Doster 
had  seen  them  seldom,  and  not  at  all  since 
he  had  first  gone  to  college.  One  day,  when 
he  had  been  in  the  village  several  weeks,  Mrs. 
Ingram,  happening  to  enter  one  of  the  stores, 
met  at  the  door  Harriet  May,  who  was  about 
to  return  home  in  the  family  gig,  in  which 
her  brother  had  brought  her. 

"  Caught  you  at  last,"  said  Mrs.  Ingram, 
''just  as  you  were  about  to  steal  off.  What 
have  I  done  to  all  you  people  that  not  one  of 
you  has  darkened  my  door  in  weeks  on  weeks  ? 
Will  May,  you  may  just  go  home  by  yourself, 
and  tell  Aunt  Martha  I  kept  Harriet  and  car- 
ried her  home  with  me,  that  being  the  only 
way  that  I  could  get  her  there.  You  young 
folks  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  yourselves  for  not 
calling  on  my  boarder  and  showing  him  some 
attention.  I  tell  you  now  that  he  is  as  good 
company  as  anybody,  if  he  is  a  preacher." 

''  Why,  Cousin  Emily,"  answered  Harriet, 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS,  29 

looking  down  at  her  plain  gingham,  ^^I 
couldn't  stay  to-night.  I  just  came  to  town 
to  get  some  things  for  ma,  and — " 

"  Yon  needn't  say  yon  can't,  for  I  say  you 
shall ;  and  if  Will  is  too  busy  with  the  plan- 
tation work,  or  rather  with  his  hunting  and 
running  about,  to  come  for  you  in  two  or 
three  days,  I'll  get  Mr.  Ingram  to  take  you, 
or  I'll  send  you  in  the  carriage." 

"  Stay,  Harriet,  if  you'd  like,"  said  WiU. 
"  rU  come  for  you  whenever  you  say.  You 
needn't  be  troubled  about  yom'  dress.  That's 
good  enough  for  kinfolks  and  a  preacher, 
Methodist  at  that." 

"  Methodist  at  that !"  retorted  Mrs.  Ingram. 
''  I  wish  you  were  as  good  as  Henry  Doster ; 
and  if  you  didn't  think  so  much  of  your  own 
good  looks,  you'd  wish  you  were  as  handsome. 
But  you  are  a  good  boy  for  giving  up  so  nice- 
ly for  Harriet  to  stay.  Now  do,  my  dear  Will, 
you  and  Hiram,  please  make  a  set  caU  soon 
on  Mr.  Doster,  and  tell  Ellen  as  you  go  by 
there  that  if  she  has  anything  against  Emily 
Ingram,  that  respectable  lady  would  hke  to 
know,  soon  as  convenient,  what  it  is;  and  you 
teU  her  f  mother  that  if  she  does  not  come  to 


30  OGEE  CHE E   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

my  house  within  less  than  one  week  from  this 
day  I  will  see  if  it  is  possible  to  know  the  rea- 
son why,  and  tell  her  that  I  said  it  in  earnest 
and  without  cracking  a  single  smile.    Hear  f 

''  I  hear,  cousin.  If  Ellen  wants  to  come, 
I'll  bring  her  up  to-morrow  in  our  carriage. 
Maybe  I'd  better  be  with  her  when  she  meets 
the  Doster  that's  so  awfully  good-looking." 

''I  didn't  so  describe  him,  you  conceited 
fellow.  I  only  intimated  that  some  people 
might  dare  to  think  him  handsomer  than 
even  you.  Well,  off  with  you.  Good-by. 
My  love  to  aunty  and  all  the  Jo3rQers." 


III. 

"  How  did  you  girls  like  the  young  preach- 
er f  Mrs.  May  asked  of  her  daughter  on  her 
return. 

''  Oh,  ma,  I  was  glad  Cousin  Emily  kept 
me,  although  I  felt  not  quite  comfortable  in 
an  every-day  frock  in  presence  of  a  young 
man  so  well  dressed  and  so  cultivated.  How- 
ever, the  next  day,  when  Ellen  brought  me 
another,  I  was  abeady  at  ease." 

"Yes;  Ellen  sent  me  word  by  Will  that 
she  was  going  to  join  you  at  Emily's,  and 
suggested  that  you  might  hke  me  to  send 
you  something." 

"  Bless  Ellen's  heart,  and  yours  too !  You 
are  both  so  thoughtful.  Henry  Doster  doesn't 
look  hke  a  preacher,  ma.  He's  handsome  too, 
and  a  good  talker,  and  a  good  hstener." 

"  What  did  he  talk  about  f ' 

"Oh,  lots  of  things  —  society,  books,  mu- 
sic— " 

"  And  rehgion  f 


32  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

"No,  ma'am,  not  at  all.  I  suppose  he 
thought  that  young  ghis  and  of  Baptist 
people  would  not  care  to  hear  a  Methodist 
preacher  discourse  in  private  on  rehgion,  and 
when  they  were  guests  in  the  house  where 
he  hved.  I  thought  that  was  very  polite  and 
sensible.  Yet  at  bedtime  he  made  the  most 
beautiful  prayer.  His  voice,  especially  when 
it  takes  on  a  religious  tone,  is  very  impres- 
sive. We  were  not  long  on  books,  I  assure 
you.  I  suspect  he  saw  that  Ellen  ancl  I  were 
not  anxious  he  should  find  how  few  we  had 
read,  and  he  let  us  drop  the  subject  when  he 
saw  that  we  wanted  to.  Pious  as  he  is,  yet 
he  is  full  of  fun.  Cousin  Emily  says  he  tells 
her  things  about  old  Mr.  Swinger  that  she 
and  he  both,  and  so  does  the  old  man  when 
present,  laugh  at  till  they  have  to  cry.  But 
he  didn't  talk  about  him  to  us.  That,  I 
suppose,  he  felt  would  be  telhng  tales  out  of 
school.  He's  devoted  to  music.  He  sang  a 
very  good  tenor  with  some  of  my  songs,  and 
he  said  to  me  privately  that  Ellen  played 
better  than  any  person  he'd  ever  heard.  He 
evidently  admkes  Ellen  highly." 

'^IshehkeTomf 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  33 

''  Not  very ;  but  rather.  Ellen  thinks  he's 
handsomer  than  Tom.  I  hardly  think  so. 
He's  very  fond  of  Tom,  and  he  said  that  he 
had  promised  to  make  him  a  visit  before  long. 
Brother  Will  did  not  come  to  the  house  until 
it  was  nearly  time  for  us  to  start  back.  But 
I  was  glad  that  he  did  come  at  last,  and  was 
pohte  enough  to  invite  Henry  Doster,  when 
he  was  in  the  neighborhood,  to  call  ujoon  us." 

''Wilham  ought  to  have  done  that,  of 
course,  and,  to  tell  the  truth,  I'd  like  to  see 
him  myself  after  all  the  talk  about  his  being 
so  smart  and  such  a  fine  preacher." 

''He'll  call  here,  I  doubt  not,  when  he 
comes  to  see  Tom.  I  hope  Hiram  will  call 
upon  him  before  that,  and  I  hope  that  when 
the  young  man  does  call,  brother  Will  won't 
be  as  condescending  in  manners  to  him  as 
he  is  to  Tom." 

''  William  does  seem  to  rather  wish  to  pat- 
ronize Tom.  I  wish  in  my  heart  he'd  be  as 
attentive  to  business  as  Tom  Doster.  The 
Doster  property  is  improving  and  increasing 
constantly,  while,  if  it  wasn't  for  Levi,  ours 
would  go  to  rack  faster  than  it  is  going  al- 
ready. If  he  and  Ellen  are  ever  to  marry,  I 
3 


34  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

wish  they'd  do  it  soon,  and  let  him  settle 
down  to  work.  Hiram  does  some  better  than 
he ;  but  there's  room  for  improvement  there 
too." 

"  The  difficulty  with  both  of  them,  ma,  is 
that  they've  been  so  long  taking  some  things 
for  granted  that — " 

''  Oh,  well,  well,  child,  let  us  all  hope  they'll 
see  in  good  time  the  need  of  a  change,  and 
then  go  seriously  about  making  it.  Go  to 
your  room  now  and  change  your  frock.  I 
want  you  to  help  Eitter  in  baking  some 
cakes." 

The  mothers  of  these  famihes  much  de- 
sired to  each  have  the  other's  daughter  for 
her  daughter-in-law,  though  the  contempla- 
tion of  the  other's  son  in  corresponding  rela- 
tionship was  far  from  eager.  The  young  men 
had  received  many  an  earnest  parental  ad- 
monition of  the  danger  of  losing  what  they 
had  been  counting  on  always  in  security; 
and  for  more  than  a  year  past  they  had  been 
growing  more  anxious  upon  the  subject  than 
they  would  have  admitted  to  any.  Especially 
was  it  thus  with  Hiram,  who,  of  the  two,  was 
more  single-minded,  of  far  greater  persistence 


OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS.  35 

in  sullen  purpose,  and  capable  of  deep  resent- 
ment of  injury  done  or  suspected  to  be  in- 
tended.    Not   courteous   by  nature,  he   bad 
ever  deported  himself  toward  both  the  girls 
as  if  neither  had  right  to  opinion  as  to  the 
disposition   which    circumstances   had   des- 
tined.    WiUiam  May,  gay,  volatile,  was  fond 
of  teasing  his  Httle  sweetheart  in  all  ways 
within  the  hmit  of  impunity.     In  neither 
case  had  been  that  ardor  of  pursuit  which  is 
always  becoming,  and  which  is  almost  always 
necessary  with  such  girls  as  Harriet  and  El- 
len.    Therefore,  when  courtship  began  to  be 
avowed,  the  men  were  surprised,  and  Hu'am 
indignant,  though   much    frightened,  when 
their  proposals  were  checked  by  the  girls, 
who  said,  smiling,  that,  having  been  confined 
at  school  so  long,  they  must  have  rest  of  in- 
definite duration,  with  as  much  freedom  and 
fun  in  it  as  possible.    They  were  lovely  girls. 
None  knew  that  fact  better  than  Hiram  and 
Will,  and,  I  may  add,  Tom  Doster,  who  hved 
so  near,  yet  regarded  himself  as  so  far  away. 
No  doubt  from  childhood  they  had  looked 
forward  to  the  destiny  wliich  to  all  minds 
seemed  inevitable.    Yet  now,  become  women, 


36  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS, 

they  felt  that  influences  of  a  kind  hitherto 
unknown  must  accrue  before  they  could  con- 
sent to  take  such  steps. 

Although  Tom  Doster  had  never  shown, 
as  he  was  aware  of,  any  preference  for  either, 
Hiram,  particularly  since  his  own  most  un- 
expected discouragement,  suspected  him  of 
wishing  to  marry  Harriet,  and  for  some  time 
past  what  had  been  meant  for  condescension 
toward  him  had  given  place  to  a  reserve  that 
illy  concealed  his  jealous  hostihty.  If  Tom's 
preference  had  been  for  Ellen,  such  hostihty 
would  have  been  as  deep,  though  different  in 
kind.  But  in  that  case  he  could  have  given, 
as  he  knew,  open  and  effectual  expression  to 
it,  and  this  he  would  have  done  with  his  na- 
tive arbitrary  resoluteness,  knowing  well  that 
his  chances  of  getting  Harriet,  uncertain,  as 
he  had  been  startled  to  find  them,  would  be 
reduced  to  nothing  unless  Will  was  to  have 
Ellen  in  exchange.  Tom  was  aware  of  this 
suspicion,  which,  whether  well  founded  or 
not,  was  then  known  to  none  besides  himself. 
He  had  been  meeting  Hiram's  new  manners 
as  he  had  his  former,  apparently  not  noticing 
that  they  were  different  from  what  he  might 


OQEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  37 

have  been  better  pleased  to  see.     His  visits, 
especially  at  the  Joyners',  continued  as  there- 
tofore, infrequent  and  seemingly,  if  not  really, 
accidental.     Several  times,  however,  within 
the  last  six  months,  when  the  girls,  together 
or  singly,  were  visiting  friends  in  town,  he 
went  there,  and— generally  with  his  cousin 
— called  upon  them  whenever  they  were  else- 
where than  at  the  Ingrams'.     In  this  time 
Henry  Doster  had  become  well  acquainted 
with  both;  but  it  was  near  the  end  of  the 
spring  before  he  made  his  long-promised  visit 
to  Tom.    This  occurred  only  a  few  days  after 
a  call  which  Hiram,  responding  to  many  sug- 
gestions from  both  families  thereto,  had  made 
upon  him. 

During  the  sojourn  of  a  couple  of  days 
the  cousins  paid  a  visit  together  to  the  Mays 
and  Joyners.  The  easy  courteousness  of  the 
preacher  made  a  good  impression  on  the 
mothers.  Mrs.  Joyner,  a  much  more  ardent 
partisan  of  Horeb  than  Mrs.  May,  said  that 
she  could  not  but  wonder  and  be  sorry  that 
such  a  fine,  bright  young  man  could  ever 
have  become  a  Methodist  preacher.  Will 
and  Hiram,  as  in  their  mothers'  presence 


38  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

they  niTist,  behaved  with  decent  hospitahty, 
although  Ellen  thought  her  brother  might 
have  made  fewer  allusions  to  the  profession 
of  the  principal  visitor,  and  perhaps  Harriet 
would  have  been  more  pleased  if  Will  had 
been  less  punctihously  gracious. 

''Two  remarkably  fine  young  women, 
Tom,"  Henry  said  when,  having  parted  from 
the  Joyners,  they  had  mounted  their  horses 
for  the  return.  ''  I  wonder  you  haven't  fall- 
en in  love  with  one  of  them.  Indeed,  I  am 
inclined  to  suspect  you  have — perhaps  with 
Miss  May,  as  I  noticed  that  you  had  rather 
more  to  say  to  her  than  to  the  other." 

Tom  laughed  and  answered:  ''Yes,  they 
are  very  fine  girls;  but  I've  never  indulged 
what  thoughts  I  may  have  let  come  into  my 
mind  occasionally." 

"Why  not  f 

"  Oh,  reasons  enough,  Henry,  for  that." 

"Are  they  actually  engaged,  think  you, 
either  couple  f 

"  I  can't  say.  If  they  are  not,  it  amounts 
to  about  the  same.  It  has  been  understood 
always  that  it  is  to  be  so  some  time  or  other, 
and  the  girls,  knowing  that,  feel,  I  suppose, 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  39 

that  they  needn't  be  in  a  hurry.  Those  boys, 
I  think  I  have  noticed,  have  been  getting  im- 
patient about  matters.  Yon  can  see  that  by 
their  confounded  over-pohteness  to  gentle- 
men in  their  own  houses,  which  means  that 
gentlemen  may  take  notice  that  if  they  come 
there  for  any  purpose  outside  of  paying  or- 
dinary neighborly  civihties,  they  may  as  well 
keep  away.  Ma  says  she  doesn't  beheve  that 
they  are  engaged ;  and  she  says  furthermore," 
he  added,  with  a  not  quite  hearty  smile, ''  that 
each  of  the  mothers  is  anxious  for  her  son's 
marriage  with  the  other's  daughter  as  soon, 
and  wants  her  own  daughter's  put  off  as  late, 
as  possible.  It's  a  right  interesting  case,  is  it 
not,  where  in  the  swap  each  has  to  give  so 
much  boot." 

They  walked  their  horses  for  a  while  in 
silence. 

"Tom,"  his  cousin  at  length  said,  ''if  you 
are  satisfied  that  these  girls  are  not  engaged, 
and  if  you  have  a  feeling  in  that  way,  I  can- 
not see  why  you  should  repress  it,  unless  you 
are  confident  that  its  indulgence  would  be 
hopeless.  It  is  plain  to  me  that  both  of  them 
hke  you,  and  in  the  looks  of  each,  when  the 


40  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS, 

name  of  her  brother's  friend  was  mentioned, 
especially  in  the  case  of  Miss  May,  there  was 
something — well,  it  seemed  to  me  a  sort  of 
pain,  indifference— which  led  her  to  turn 
from  the  subject.  Now,  my  dear  old  fellow," 
laying  his  hand  fondly  on  Tom's  shoulder, ''  I 
don't  ask  you  for  your  confidence,  though  I 
rather  think  that  I  might  get  what  in  such  a 
case  I  should  freely  give  to  you ;  but  if,  as 
I  suspect,  you  do  love  one  of  these  young 
women,  you  ought  to  know  that  a  man  is 
under  some  bonds  to  his  own  heart  and  its 
honorable  ambitions,  and  I  have  never  known 
one  who  with  greater  propriety  than  yourself 
may  feel  and  use  all  manful  means  to  the  ful- 
filment of  such  obligation." 

Suddenly  turning  upon  him,  Tom  said, 
playfully:  ''Looky  here,  my  boy,  why  not 
take  some  of  that  counsel  to  yourself? 
There  are  two  of  those  women  and  but  one 
of  me." 

Henry  blushed  shghtly,  and,  looking  for- 
ward, answered,  with  solemnity :  ''My  dear 
Tom,  if  I  should  ever  look  for  a  wife,  my  best 
chances,  I  suppose,  to  say  nothing  of  con- 
gruity,  would  be  among  the  Methodists.     I 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  41 

doubt  if  I  shall  ever  marry,  bound  as  I  am  to 
an  itinerary  life,  wliicli  perhaps  no  woman 
whom  I  could  admii^e  sufficiently,  especially 
if  she  were  not  of  my  rehgious  faith,  could 
be  expected  to  endure  without  complaint. 
But  you,"  turning  to  him  again— ''you,  my 
dear  Tom,  so  upright,  energetic,  constantly 
bettering  your  condition,  with  promise  of  a 
career  higher,  far  above  those  young  men, 
and  with  a  manfuler  appreciation  than  theirs 
of  these  young  women  whom  they  have  not 
cultivated  the  manhood  to  deserve — ^if  you 
want  one  of  them,  and  do  not  beheve  that 
you  would  be  interfering  with  a  pre-contract, 
expressed  or  imphed,  I  repeat  it,  you  owe  it 
to  every  behest  of  your  being  as  a  freeman  to 
enter  these  lists." 

They  had  turned  into  the  grove  fronting 
the  house,  when,  checking  their  horses  simul- 
taneously, they  dismounted.  There  was  so 
much  of  solemn  earnestness  in  Henry's  words 
that  when  they  had  seated  themselves  upon 
the  projecting  roots  of  one  of  the  oak-trees, 
Tom  told  him  without  reserve  the  secret  that 
hitherto  had  been  kept  within  his  own  breast. 
Henry,  putting  his  arms  around  him,  and  lay- 


4^  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

ing  his  head  upon  his  breast,  was  silent  for  a 
minute.  Then,  lifting  himseK  upright,  he 
said,  with  glowing  face  : 

''  Oh,  Tom !  my  beloved,  my  most  precious 
old  Tom !  Thankful  am  I,  oh,  so  thankful ! 
Yet  I  would  have  chosen,  and  I  would  have 
prayed  to  die  rather  than  not  avoid  a  con- 
flict between  your  heart  and  mine !  You  un- 
derstand now  my  earnest  wish  to  look  into 
yours.  Give  me  your  hand.  Hand  in  hand 
we  will  go  to  meet  these  arrogant  youths,  who 
abeady  claim  what  they  have  never  learned 
how  to  sue  for  and  to  win.  Let  us  commit 
the  issue  to  God,  who,  I  do  not  doubt,  will 
order  whatever  is  best  for  all." 


IV. 

Pkomptly  began  a  change  in  Tom  Doster's 
life.  Not  neglecting  any  part  of  his  work,  he 
thenceforth  went  more  frequently  not  only  to 
the  Mays',  but  the  Joyners' ;  for  kindred  to 
his  own  was  the  cause  of  the  cousin  who  had 
imparted  to  him  the  new  courage  by  which 
he  was  now  inspired.  Increased  freedom  of 
speech  was  noticeable  at  both  houses,  par- 
ticularly when  one  or  both  of  the  young  men 
were  present.  It  looked  as  if  he  meant  to 
show  that  he  felt  himself  to  be  any  man's 
equal  in  whatever  a  man  may  strive  with 
honor  to  achieve,  regarding  the  risks  and 
dangers  at  what  they  were  worth,  no  less, 
no  more.  Always  having  ignored  the  con- 
descensions of  William  May  and  Hiram 
Joyner's  supercihous  reserve,  he  treated  the 
expression  and  the  withholding  of  then-  opin- 
ions as  if  they  were  of  the  same  importance 
in  his  mind  as  those  of  any  others  in  the 
neighborhood.     It  was  plain  th^t  he  had  de- 


U  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

cided  to  be  necessary  not  only  courage,  but 
timely  exhibitions  of  it.  His  cousin  acted 
similarly  whenever  in  their  society.  He  saw 
the  girls  always  when  they  were  in  town, 
and  several  times  witliin  the  space  of  a  few 
weeks  had  visited  them  at  home,  sometimes 
with  Tom,  more  often  alone.  Though  httle 
used  to  the  society  of  young  women,  the  in- 
stincts of  a  true  lover  who  had  been  born  and 
reared  a  gentleman  taught  him  at  once  all  the 
manners  he  needed.  Before  the  summer  was 
ended  it  began  to  be  talked  in  the  village,  and 
throughout  the  region  between  it  and  the 
river,  that  Tom  Doster  was  courting  Harriet 
May  and  Henry  courting  Ellen  Joyner,  both, 
to  all  appearances,  with  very  fair  prospects  of 
success.  What  made  the  rumor  seem  more 
probable  was  that  not  one  of  them,  male  or 
female,  when  joked  upon  the  subject,  either 
admitted  or  denied. 

Hiram  had  learned  at  last  that  his  sister, 
petite,  meek,  though  she  was,  could  not  be 
controlled  entirely  by  his  own  imperious 
will.  Without  speaking  to  her  on  the  mat- 
ter, he  ruminated  silently  upon  what  course 
he  would  pursue  if  he  should  be  convinced 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  45 

that  there  was  any  Just  foundation  for  it. 
But  Wilham  May,  outspoken  always,  deter- 
mined to  find  out  if  possible  at  least  how  far 
Harriet  was  interested  in  Tom.  One  day, 
after  returning  fi^om  one  of  the  fields,  having 
met  Tom,  who  had  just  come  out  of  the  house 
seeming  in  contented  humor,  he  said  to  his 
sister : 

'^  Harriet,  of  course  I  don't  beheve  a  word 
of  this  talk  that  is  going  the  rounds  about 
you  and  Tom  Doster.  Yet  since  his  cousin, 
that  everybody  is  flattering  out  of  his  senses, 
has  been  coming  down  here,  and  following 
you  and  Ellen  all  over  town  when  you  go 
there,  Tom  has  gotten  to  be  as  proud  as  a 
peacock  with  a  full-spread  tail,  and  he  be- 
haves as  if  he  felt  himself  as  good  as  any- 
body. What  the  deuce  does  it  all  mean  %  I 
never  saw  Hiram  so  angry  in  my  life." 

"  I  don't  see,  brother  Will,  why  Tom  Dos- 
ter should  not  feel  as  you  describe  about  his 
'  goodness,'  as  you  call  it,  compared  with  that 
of  other  young  men  of  his  acquaintance,"  she 
answered,  very,  very  mildly. 

''  Well,  /  do ;  for  he  has  neither  the  prop- 
erty nor  the  position  to  warrant." 


46  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

"  He  has  not  indeed  the  property  that,  for 
instance,  you  have,  or  Hiram;  but  as  for 
positio7i,  you  know  very  well  that  in  this 
county  it  is  as  good  as — as  anybody's,  not  only 
for  what  depends  upon  his  personal  charac- 
ter, but  his  family,  which  I  have  heard  pa  say 
was  as  good  as  any  in  all  his  acquaintance." 

'<■  Ay  ?  Well,  I  merely  remark  that  Hiram 
is  getting  furious  about  the  report  connect- 
ing Ellen's  name  with  that  Methodist  cox- 
comb, and  he  says  that  it  has  to  stop,  other- 
wise he  will  forbid  his  visiting  the  house.  If 
they  were  of  the  right  sort  of  men  they  would 
less  often  come  to  private  houses  where  they 
are  obhged  to  know  that  they  are  not  wanted." 

"  Brother  Will,  /  do  not  abject  to  the  visits 
of  Tom  Doster — I,  for  whom  you  suppose, 
perhaps  truly,  that  they  are  intended  mainly, 
and  I  have  good  reason  to  beheve  that  Ellen 
feels  similarly  about  those  of  his  cousin.  Ma 
has  not  forbidden,  nor  has  Mrs.  Joyner  that 
I  know  of,  that  we  receive  the  visits  of  these 
young  men,  and  until  that  is  done  I,  at  least, 
shall  treat  them  with  the  same  civihty  with 
which  I  have  always  treated  those  whom  I 
have  taken  to  be  gentlemen." 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  47 

''  My !"  he  said,  pleasantly,  as  if  commend- 
ing her  spirit ;  ''  you  talk  as  if  you  felt  inde- 
pendent as  a  wood-sawyer." 

''  I  know  not  how  independent  such  a  per- 
son habitually  feels,  but  I  know  very  well 
that  /  shall  always  be  a  very  dependent 
woman,  and  so  I  mean  to  try  to  be  very 
careful  as  to  the  one  on  whom  I  am  to  de- 
pend mainly  when — when  the  time  comes. 
Brother  William,"  she  went  on,  nerved  by  a 
feehng  stirred  by  his  harsh  language,  ''you 
and  Hiram  Joyner  have  always  had  some 
strange  notions,  and  neither  of  you  has  had 
the  art,  perhaps  because  you  never  believed 
it  worth  your  while,  to  conceal  them.  You 
have  acted  with  me  as  if  you  had,  and  could 
have  had,  no  other  expectation  than  for  me 
to  accept  Hiram  in  marriage  whenever  he 
chooses  to  offer  himself,  and  Hiram  has  done 
the  same  and  more  with  Ellen  in  her  relation 
to  you,  and  that  because  such  was  the  surest 
if  not  the  least  troublesome  means  of  accom- 
phshing  your  own  ends.  Why  could  not  both, 
or  one  of  you  at  least,  sue  on  your  own  merits  f 

''LikeTomDoster,ehr 

"  Well,"  she  rephed,  in  yet  more  animated 


48  OQEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

tone,  "  if  you  so  mind,  I'll  answer,  Yes^  Tom 
Doster !  for  if  lie  is  moving  now,  or  if  he  ever 
will  be  moving,  in  the  matter  of  which  we 
are  talking,  it  is  or  it  will  be  on  that  line, 
Just  as  he  has  been  doing  ever  since  I  have 
been  old  enough  to  form  any  judgment  on 
his  movements  compared  with  other  men's. 
Now,  my  dear  brother,  I  am  going  to  ask  you 
a  question,  which,  of  course,  you'll  answer 
directly  or  not,  as  you  choose.  If  you  felt 
perfectly  sure  that  Ellen  would  never  con- 
sent to  marry  you,  would  you  be  entirely 
wilhng  for  me  to  take  Hiram  f 

The  question  embarrassed  him,  but  it  fret- 
ted also.  He  answered,  petulantly,  looking 
away  from  her,  ''If  you'd  accept  Hiram, 
Ellen  would  engage  herseK  to  me  to-mor- 
row." 

"And  you  would  take  her  on  such  terms'? 
Yes,"  blushing  with  pain,  she  said,  "  my  own 
brother  virtually  admits  that  he  would,  if  he 
could,  barter  his  sister  to  a  man  in  exchange 
for  that  man's  sister  to  wife,  although  well 
knowing  the  infirmities  of  that  man's  nat- 
ure, which  would  make  it  impossible  for  any 
woman  of  spirit  to  live  with  liim  hajipily. 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  49 

Well,  my  brother,  I  cannot  be  a  party  to 
such  a  bargain,  even  if  it  were  possible  it 
could  be  made.  But,  oh  dear !  oh  dear !  how 
you  have  mistaken  that  sweet  ghi !  She  is  too 
fine  a  gentlewoman  to  talk,  even  with  me,  her 
most  intimate  friend,  about  such  things ;  but 
I  am  without  a  doubt  that  Hiram  often  and 
often  has  conducted  himself  towards  her  in 
that  same  way,  but  more  offensively,  accord- 
ing as  he  has  a  domineering  spirit,  which  you 
have  not,  and  little  of  affectionateness  for  his 
sister  or  anybody  else.  Now  let  me  tell  you : 
Hiram  Joyner's  interference  has  been  the 
worst  possible  for  you.  But  for  it  I  am  in- 
clined to  believe  that  you  might  have  gotten 
Ellen  in  time,  if  you  could  have  shown  to  her 
that  your  hope  and  your  wishes  to  win  her 
were  based  only  upon  honest  endeavors  to  de- 
serve her.  As  it  is,  brother  Will,  whatever 
chances  you  may  have  had  are  now  gone." 

''  What  f  he  cried.  ''  You  mean  to  tell  me 
that  Ellen  Joyner  is  going  to  throw  herself 
away  on  that  whining  preacher  ?" 

'' Brother  William!"  She  was  about  to 
respond  with  the  generous  indignation  pro- 
voked by  this  insult  to  an  absent  friend,  but 
4 


50  OGEE  CHE E   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

she  repressed  it,  and  said :  ''  I  choose  not  to 
betray  a  trust  which  Ellen  has  not  given  me 
permission  to  reveal.  I  said  what  I  did  for 
the  purpose  of  con^dncing  yon  of  the  nseless- 
ness  of  any  further  indulgence  of  whatever 
expectation  you  may  have  had.  Honorable, 
noble  girl  that  she  is,  she  would  not  object 
to  that,  but  would  rather  desu^e  it.  I  will  not 
say  if  the  man  to  whom  she  has  given  her 
affections  is  or  is  not  Henry  Doster,  of  whom 
my  brother,  I  am  sure,  forgot  himself  just 
now  when  he  spoke  in  such  grossly  unkind 
and  unjust  words." 

''  Oh,  confound  it  all!  I  take  that  back,  of 
course.  Indeed,  as  between  Henry  Doster 
and  Tom,  I  rather  think,  if  I  were  a  woman — 
However,  I  ought  not  to  say  that  either,  to 
you,  though  you  haven't  told  me  whether  or 
not  there's  any  truth  in  the  blamed  report 
about  yourself.  The  fact  is,  Harriet,  the 
whole  thing  has  taken  me  by  such  sm^rise 
that —  Hang  it  all!  let  it  go.  I'm  left,  it 
seems ;  and  it's  some  satisfaction  to  find  that 
out  so  soon,  and  by  you.  All  right.  I  shall 
bother  mth  the  thing  no  more.  I  can  out- 
hve  it,  I'm  thankful  to  beheve.     But  Hiram !" 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  51 

Then  he  laughed  outright,  and  continued : 
''  Harriet,  that  young  fellow  don't  know  Hi- 
ram Joyner.  He  don't  know  anything  at  all 
about  him.  You  are  going  to  hear  of  some 
interesting  news  when  Hiram  finds  out  what 
you  tell  me.  By  the  way,  Cousin  Emily  told 
me  this  morning  in  town  that  you  and  Ellen 
had  promised  to  spend  camp-meeting  at  her 
tent." 

"  Yes,  I'm  going,  if  ma  does  not  object.  I 
haven't  asked  her  yet." 

''Methodist  stock  seems  to  be  rising  down 
here  on  Ogeechee.  Wonder  what  old  man 
BulHngton  will  think  of  that ;  and  Hiram— 
I  tell  you,  and  you  may  tell  the  rest  of  them, 
that  when  that  boy  finds  out  how  things  are, 
they'll  hear  from  him." 

He  rose,  and,  mounting  his  horse  again, 
galloped  back  to  the  field.  Mrs.  May,  com- 
ing in  shortly  afterward,  asked  what  had 
they  been  talking  about  so  loud  that  she 
could  hear  their  voices  from  the  door  of  the 
kitchen,  where  she  had  been  standing.  When 
Harriet  had  answered,  she  sat  down,  and  after 
some  reflection,  said : 

''Ah,  well!    Your  father  and  Mr.  Joyner 


52  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

set  a  great  deal  by  the  hopes  they  had  about 
their  children.  If  they  could  have  lived  to 
raise  their  boys  so  as  to  be  fit  for  making  the 
right  sort  of  husbands,  things  might  have 
been  different.  As  it  is,  they've  nobody  to 
blame  but  themselves,  though  I've  always 
tried  to  count  on  nothing  else  than  for  poor 
Wilham  to  get  Ellen.  It  would  have  been 
the  making  of  him.  As  for  Hiram,  I  was  al- 
ways afraid  of  such  as  that  with  his  rough 
temper  and  his  disposition  to  rule  everybody 
about  him.  But  poor  Will !" 
Then  she  shed  tears. 

''But,  Harriet"— suddenly  rousing  herself 
— ''  if  I  was  in  yours  and  Ellen's  place,  after 
such  a — I  suppose  I  may  call  it  disappoint- 
ment—I just  declare  I  wouldn't  be  engaging 
myself  to  the  first  man  that  offered  himself. 
I  have  nothing  against  Thomas,  who  is  a 
good,  industrious  young  man ;  but  I've  never 
even  so  much  as  dreamed  of  your  marrying 
him.  The  whole  thing  has  taken  me  by  such 
surprise  that  I  hardly  know  what  to  say  about 
it.  As  for  his  cousin  Henry,  I  don't  know 
that  I  ever  met  a  more  gentlemanly,  well- 
mannered  young  man,  and  between  the  two. 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS,  53 

even  if  he  is  a  Methodist  preacher —  Oh, 
you  needn't  be  smiling  in  that  way,  when  I'm 
in  dead  earnest." 

''  I  beg  pardon,  ma.  I  was  smihng  at  your 
speaking  so  positively  just  after  declaring 
that  you  knew  not  what  to  say.  I  am  not 
going  to  act  precipitately  in  this  matter,  my 
dear  mother,  and  I  shall  hope  to  have  your 
approval  of  whatever  I  may  conclude  to  do. 
I'm  not  much  sui^prised  at  your  preference 
for  Henry  over  Tom,  partly  because  he  is 
not  in  Tom's  place,  and  partly  because  you 
consider  him  more  brilhant,  perhaps ;  and  I 
haven't  a  doubt  that  Mrs.  Joyner  has  put  be- 
fore poor,  dear  EUen  the  same  comparison  re- 
versed, emphasizing  Tom's  being  such  a  good 
Baptist." 

''You  are  right  there,"  replied  the  mother, 
her  natural  cheerfulness  somewhat  restored. 
"  I  was  over  there  a  Uttle  while  this  morning 
when  you  and  Ellen  went  to  the  Andersons'. 
Hiram  came  in  where  his  mother  and  I  were, 
and  he  went  on  terribly  about  Henry  Doster." 

''What  did  Mrs.  Joyner  sayf 

"Not  one  word.  She  knows  she  can't 
stop  Hiram  when  he  begins.     But  I  told  the 


54:  OGEE  GHEE   GROSS-FIRINGS. 

young  gentleman  plain  that  I  didn't  agree 
with  a  word  he  said  about  him." 

"'  I'm  glad  you  did.  Bless  your  dear  heart, 
ma,  it  was  like  you  to  refuse  to  hear  in  silence 
abuse  of  a  man  who  in  your  opinion  had  fair- 
ly supplanted  your  own  son.  Hiram  will  not 
hurt  Henry  Doster  by  such  talk,  especially  in 
the  estimation  of  Ellen,  grown  as  she  has  at 
last  to  ignore  his  imperiousness.  If  it  hadn't 
been  for  him,  EUen,  I  do  beheve,  would  have 
taken  brother  Will.  His  constant,  dogged 
interference  prevented.  Did  he  say  anything 
against  Tom  f 

''  Didn't  mention  Tom's  name ;  but  his 
mother  did,  and  while  she  was  praising  Tom 
to  the  skies  he  looked  out  the  window,  and 
let  on  as  if  he  were  not  hearing.  Poor  sort 
of  behavior,  to  my  opinion.  Well !  weU !  but 
it  showed  that  if  he  finds  out  there's  anything 
serious  between  Henry  Doster  and  Ellen,  he'll 
do  his  very  best  to  break  it  up.  They  are 
the  strongest  kind  of  Baptists,  you  know; 
that  is,  all  except  Hiram,  who,  I'm  afraid, 
has  no  religion  of  any  sort;  at  least  not 
enough  to  do  him  any  good ;  but  EUen  and 
her  mother  are,  Mr.  Joyner  being  the  orig- 


OGEECHEE   CROSS  FIRINGS.  55 

inal  starter  of  Horeb ;  and  Hiram,  if  he  can't 
work  it  with  Ellen,  will  bring  in  old  Brother 
Bulhngton  and  set  him  at  his  mother.  I  pity 
the  poor  httle  thing  when  that's  the  case." 

Then  Mrs.  May  laughed,  this  charitable 
thought  having  brought  that  much  rehef. 
Harriet  joined  in  heartily  to  enhance  this 
frame  of  her  mother's  mind.  Indeed  Mrs. 
May,  though  a  good  Baptist  woman,  would 
say  sometimes  that  in  her  opinion  there  were 
in  the  world  people  as  good  as  those  of  her 
own  denomination — an  admission  that  Mrs. 
Joyner  might  have  feared  and  Mr.  Bulhngton 
would  have  known  to  be  imprudent. 

This  good  man  lived  in  a  small  house  with 
a  small  farm  attached,  about  a  mile  north  of 
the  Dosters',  and  about  half  that  distance 
fi'om  Horeb.  Tall  like  Mr.  Swinger,  but 
much  heavier  both  in  body  and  in  spirit, 
gloomy-looking  at  all  times,  his  brows  grew 
darker  at  any  thought  of  harm  done  or  med- 
itated against  either  himself  or  the  rehgious 
faith  of  which  for  many  years  he  had  been  a 
very  bold,  a  very  loud,  and  a  reasonably  ac- 
ceptable pubhc  exponent.  It  was  not  often 
that  he  laughed,  although  he  did  laugh,  at 


56  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

least  he  tried  to  laugli  sometimes  when  he 
had  gained  some  personal  or  denominational 
triumph  or  beheved  he  had  some  well- 
founded  hope  of  it.  The  seasons  of  his 
heartiest  gayety,  if  the  word  could  be  em- 
ployed fitly  in  his  case,  were  wedding  feasts, 
the  degrees  of  his  enjoyment  thereat  depend- 
ing upon  contingencies.  Country  churches 
in  those  times  contributed  but  small  stipends 
to  their  pastors,  some  excusing  themselves 
with  the  authority  that  at  its  first  institu- 
tion, and  admitted  to  have  been  done  then 
at  its  very  best,  preaching  of  the  gospel  was 
furnished  without  money  and  without  price. 
Mr.  Bulhngton  perhaps  had  never  said  so  in 
words,  yet  he  honestly  suspected  that  some- 
where or  other  there  might  be  a  fiaw  in 
this  argument.  Still  he  felt  contented  to 
think  that  the  sums  received  from  his  four 
churches,  with  the  occasional  mite  dropped 
in  from  a  fifth  Sunday,  were  at  least  as  much 
as  he  could  have  earned  had  his  powers  been 
exerted  in  other  professional  or  in  agricul- 
tural endeavors.  Specially  consohng  and 
grateful  was  the  supplementary  help  of  fees, 
ranging  from   one    dollar  to   five,  obtained 


,^.- 


MR.  BULLINGTON's    WEDDING   COUNTENANCE. 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  59 

from  liberal  happy  bridegrooms ;  so  much  so 
that  he  was  a  noted  encourager  of  marriages 
among  his  own  flocks,  not  only  early  but 
repeated,  whenever  death  had  made  them 
possible.  At  wedding  feasts,  notably  when 
the  enclosure  in  the  hcense  was  at  maximum 
or  approximate  to  it,  and  when  he  was  full  up 
to  the  brim  of  good  things,  his  struggles  to  be 
merry  hke  the  rest  were  both  commendable 
and  interesting.  If  his  face  on  such  occa- 
sions could  have  corresponded  with  his  huge 
body,  those  efforts  would  have  been  entirely, 
even  immensely,  satisfactory.  As  it  was, 
when  his  sides  were  shaking,  that  counte- 
nance, as  if  restrained  by  a  sense  of  duty  be- 
hind expression  of  hilarity  not  becoming  his 
sacred  office,  took  on  a  most  painful  sternness 
that  seemed  to  fix  a  just  equilibrium. 

For  two  or  three  years  last  past  he  had 
been  counting  upon  being  called  to  the  Mays' 
and  the  Joyners'  on  some  fine  evenings  at 
candle-hght,  where  he  would  feel  sure — they 
being  the  richest  and  most  hberal  among  all 
his  people — that  handsome  things  would  be 
done  for  him  who  should  tie  the  knots  as 
fond  as  indissoluble.     Only  once  had  he  en- 


60  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

countered  face  to  face  his  rival,  Mr.  Swinger, 
and  the  latter  admitted  afterwards  that  he  had 
had  the  worst  of  it.  Now  that  Mr.  Swinger, 
or  any  other  Methodist  preacher,  would  come 
within  the  verge  of  Horeb  on  a  mission  which, 
next  to  his  public  ministrations,  it  had  ever 
been  his  fondest  pleasure  to  serve,  had  not 
entered  his  mind,  hable  as  it  was  to  gloomy 
apprehensions.  Therefore,  when  the  report 
arose  about  Ellen  Joyner  and  Henry  Doster, 
a  sprout,  as  it  were,  from  the  trunk  of  Mr. 
Swinger,  he  tried  to  scout  it  as  an  evil,  mali- 
cious, idle  tale.  Yet  he  could  not  but  be  anx- 
ious, and,  while  meditating  on  his  own  most 
prudent  hne  of  action,  news  came  that  both 
the  girls  were  going  to  the  camp-meeting,  now 
at  hand. 

^'  Thar,  now !"  he  exclaimed  to  his  wife ; 
for  of  these  occasions  he  ever  had  a  dread, 
not  unmingled  with  horror.  ''However, 
mighty  nigh  everybody,  special  young  peo- 
ple, will  go  to  that  whirlypool.  A  body  must 
try  and  hope  for  the  best." 

But  a  deep  groan  told  that  this  reflection 
had  brought  no  rehef . 


To  an  old-time  Greorgian  it  is  very  pleasing 
now  to  recall  the  camp-meetings  of  the  long 
ago,  particularly  those  in  the  county  wherein 
the  scenes  recorded  in  this  story  are  laid. 
Four  miles  south  of  Grateston,  and  nearly 
one  mile  distant  from  the  pubhc  thorough- 
fare, ground  of  about  ten  acres,  parallelogram 
in  shape,  had  been  selected  by  the  Methodists 
for  this  purpose  shortly  after  the  first  settle- 
ment of  that  region.  Here  the  level  land  on 
three  sides  ended,  and  at  a  few  rods'  distance 
in  their  front  dechned  several  feet,  becoming 
somewhat  precipitous  shortly  after  leaving 
the  camp  at  a  spot  where  was  a  spring  of 
abundant  cool  water.  A  large  wooden  shed, 
called  ''  The  Stand,"  without  floor  or  weather- 
boarding,  capable  of  covering,  say,  four  thou- 
sand persons,  stood  near  the  centre.  Eudely 
constructed  tents  of  unplaned  boards,  also 
without  floors,  were  on  three  sides,  and  on 
the  only  rising  ground  of  the  last  was  one 


62  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS, 

floored  and  otherwise  more  elaborate,  kno^vn 
as  "The  Preachers'  Tent;"  for  the  clergy, 
married  and  single,  during  the  camp,  which 
lasted  f onr  days,  not  often  longer,  were  domi- 
ciled together,  but  took  their  meals  promiscu- 
ously among  the  tent-holders. 

Observing  the  wagons  and  ox-carts  during 
a  couple  of  days  before,  laden  with  household 
goods  of  every  kind,  moving  in  one  direction, 
a  stranger  might  be  led  to  suspect  that  a 
large  number  of  the  population  were  emi- 
grating to  foreign  parts.  By  Friday  night, 
where  three  days  ago  naught  of  animate  nat- 
ure was  to  be  seen  except  the  bu^ds  and  gray 
squirrels  in  the  surrounding  forest,  was  a  vil- 
lage of  several  hundreds  of  inhabitants  ready 
for  the  entertainment  of  relatives,  friends,  ac- 
quaintances, and  strangers  of  almost  every 
degree.  On  either  side  of  the  passage,  ex- 
tending from  the  front  to  the  eating-place  in 
the  rear  of  each  tent,  were  the  sleeping-cham- 
bers. In  front  was  a  shed  to  defend  from  the 
sun's  rays  the  men  who  sat  there  and  smoked 
cigars  and  chatted,  while  the  women,  except 
in  the  evenings,  remained  within.  Behind 
the  tent  was  another  shed  for  the  cook  and 


OGEE  CHE E   CROSS-FIRINGS.  63 

her  utensils.  If  she  slept  anywhere,  I  sus- 
pect it  must  have  been  under  the  dining- 
table.  Further  yet  in  the  rear  were  rail  pens 
holding  pigs,  lambs,  and  domestic  fowls.  Ve- 
hicles of  burden  travelled  back  and  forth  con- 
tinually for  supphes  for  the  ever-threatening 
void.  Hundi^eds  of  wagon-loads  of  wheat  and 
oat  straw  were  brought  daily  to  be  spread 
afresh  upon  the  ground  inside.  Beyond  the 
carriageways,  some  near  the  edge,  some  deeper 
within  the  woods,  were  booths  whereat  one 
could  purchase  cigars,  confections  of  various 
kinds,  and  perhaps,  in  a  quiet  way,  a  bottle  or 
a  flask  with  something  which  could  not  be 
Ucensed,  but  which  claimed  to  be  excellently 
good,  considering  everything.  At  night  the 
groimds  were  ht  with  bonfires  kindled  from 
pine  knots  upon  wood  scaffolds  thickly  cov- 
ered with  earth.  Pubhc  services  were  held 
four  times  a  day,  at  eight  and  eleven  in  the 
forenoon,  three  in  the  afternoon,  and  candle- 
hght.  All  were  expected  to  rise  from  bed  for 
morning  prayers,  which  were  offered  by  one  of 
the  preachers  or  other  pious  person,  and  to 
retire  at  bedtime,  the  signal  for  which  occa- 
sions being  announced  by  a  long  tin  trumpet. 


64  OGEE  CHE E   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

After  the  services  for  the  whites  were  over, 
reasonable  time  was  allowed  to  the  negroes 
beneath  the  trees  in  the  rear  of  the  stand, 
who,  then  as  now,  preferred  to  do  their  own 
worship  among  themselves. 

The  numbers  eating  at  any  one  of  these 
tables  in  many  rounds  of  seatings  were  very 
large.  People  from  all  parts  of  the  county, 
from  several  adjoining  —  cotton  factors  and 
merchants  from  Augusta  and  Savannah,  from 
Milledgeville  and  Macon,  some  with  pious,  the 
greater  number  with  other  intents — resorted 
there.  Housewives  vied  among  one  another 
in  putting  forth  abundance  and  variety  of 
hospitable  entertainment.  As  for  Gateston, 
particularly  on  Saturday  and  Sunday,  not  a 
fourth  of  its  population  would  be  left  at 
home,  those  not  having  tents,  and  many  of 
other  religious  denominations,  unwilhng  to 
endure  the  sohtude,  repairing,  some  with  their 
wives  and  young  children,  to  the  general  ren- 
dezvous. 

On  the  east  side — called  by  humbler  folk 
''  Quahty  Row,"  because  taken  by  the  lead- 
ing families — were  the  Ingrams,  whereat  the 
Mays  and  Joyners  sojourned,  not  only  the 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.         '      65 

girls,  but  the  young  men  also.  Tom  Doster, 
although  invited  there,  was  busy  with  saving 
his  crop  of  fodder,  and  did  not  appear  until 
Sunday,  and  that  with  expectation  of  return- 
ing home  in  the  afternoon. 

Among  the  clergy  were  several  possessed 
of  a  high  order  of  eloquence,  and  others  less 
gifted  in  this  regard,  but  hoping  to  make  up 
by  abundant  strength  of  lungs  habituated  to 
sounding  on  loftiest  keys  platitudes  of  warn- 
ing, mainly  upon  the  conditions  of  the  infer- 
nal world.     With  four  sermons  a  day,  most 
persons,  except  the  notably  devout,  as  well 
inside  as  outside  the  denomination,  the  young 
especially,  elected  which  they  would  attend. 
It  was  in  vain  that,  in  order  to  prevent  such 
discrimination,  announcements  were  withheld, 
and  it  could  not  be  known  who  was  to  preach 
at  any  particular  hour  until  after  the  first 
prayer  and  the  second  hymn,  for  from  nearly 
every  tent  door  the  pulpit  could  be  observed, 
or,  when  not,  the  speaker  could  be  guessed 
from  the  numbers  seen  hurrying  to  the  stand. 
Mr.  Swinger,  devoted  with  all  his  heart  to 
his  caUing,  always  feehng  prepared  with  a 
sermon  of  any  length  requisite  upon  any  text 
5 


66  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS, 

of  Scripture,  yet,  with  becoming  considera- 
tion for  visiting  brethren,  had  requested  that 
he  be  not  called  upon  during  the  meeting, 
proposing,  however,  to  ''do  the  ex'ortin',"  as 
he  styled  it,  after  the  sermon  of  Henry  Dos- 
ter,  which  had  been  appointed  for  Sunday 
night. 

''  Young  man  hke  Henry,  you  know,  bro th- 
in, it'll  mayby  sorter  encourage  him  up  in  the 
back  to  know  his  old  father,  as  I  calls  myself, 
is  behind  thar  a-ready  and  a-waitin'  to  prize 
him  out  if  he  git  stuck  in  his  first  camp- 
meetin'  splurgin'.  He's  a  powerful  modest 
boy,  but  if  he  can  keep  his  head  clear  before 
so  many  people,  I  sha'n't  be  oneasy ;  for  the 
tiling's  in  him,  if  he  can  fetch  her  out.  Let 
me  back  him  up  in  his  first  off -start.  He 
know,  Henry  Dawster  do,  he  can  'pend  on 
old  Allen  Swinger  till  everything  turn  blue." 

I  should  remark  here  that  although  he  had 
not  sought  from  his  young  friend  the  confi- 
dence which  he  doubted  not  his  having  good 
reasons  for  withholding,  yet  he  had  been  in- 
tensely interested  in  the  rumor  connecting 
him  with  Ellen  Joyner,  and  he  had  been  as 
deeply  resentful  as  so  pious  a  man  could  be 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  67 

at  what  he  had  heard  of  Hiram's  fierce  hos- 
tihty,  as  evinced  by  utterances  not  only  most 
disrespectful,  but  threatening,  towards  Henry. 
Other  things  had  contributed  to  put  him 
rather  out  of  his  accustomed  humor  by  this 
time.  A  much  smaller  number  of  mourners 
than  with  some  confidence  he  had  counted  on 
had  responded  to  most  persuasive  and  m^gent 
appeals  to  come  up  to  the  altar.  Never  be- 
fore, it  seemed  to  him,  had  sinners  been  more 
obdurately  unconcerned  about  theh^  spiritual 
condition.  More  talk  than  usual,  he  felt  sure 
in  his  mind,  had  been  about  politics,  crops, 
money-making  in  general,  county  and  neigh- 
borhood news,  than  at  any  camp-meeting  in 
he  would  not  hke  to  say  how  long.  Lastly, 
there  was  a  matter  of  family  trouble  on  his 
mind.  Jerry  Pound,  son  of  his  own  dear, 
widowed  sister,  a  great,  lubberly,  careless  fel- 
low, his  mother  had  besought  her  brother  to 
try  yet  again  to  do  something  with,  as  it  did 
seem  to  her  that  he  cared  no  more  for  his 
soul's  salvation  than  if  he  never  had  a  soul  to 
be  saved.  Mr.  Swinger  during  the  two  past 
days  had  held  some  talk  with  the  youngster 
what  times  he  had  been  able,  in  spite  of  his 


68  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS, 

dodging,  to  catch  liim  witMn  hearing,  and  had 
become  sufficiently  disgusted  with  the  httle 
impression  made  by  his  remonstrances.  That 
very  evening  he  had  said  to  Jerry,  loud  enough 
to  be  overheard  by  several  young  persons  of 
both  sexes  who  were  sitting  or  standing  near : 
''  Jerry  Pound,  your  hide's  as  tough  as  the  jog- 
raphy  books  tells  about  them  rhinoserouses 
that  it  ain't  worth  a  man's  while  to  shoot  a 
rifle  at  'em ;  and  your  back  is  hard  same  as  a 
logger-head  turkle  that  you  has  to  put  a  coal 
of  fire  on  him  before  he'll  move  when  he  don't 
want  to.     But  never  you  mind." 

It  was  not  that  Jerry  was  not  a  hard-work- 
ing youth ;  but,  ever  since  he  had  grown  too 
big  to  be  whipped  for  doing  such  things  slyly, 
he  was  in  the  habit  of  playing  marbles  openly 
on  Sundays,  and  going  with  others  to  the 
creek  a-swimming,  and  by  his  mother  was 
suspected  even  of  occasional  swearing. 

On  the  whole,  therefore,  the  state  of  mind 
in  which  Mr.  Swinger  found  himself  all  that 
afternoon  was  far  from  confident  or  cheerful. 
Yet  he  was  not  a  man  to  be  put  back  by  such 
considerations  from  the  prosecution  of  his 
duty.     Indeed,  they  conspired  to  make  him 


ALLEN  SWINGER  AND  JERRY  POUND. 


OGEE  CHE E   CROSS-FIRINGS.  71 

more  eager  to  put  forth  his  word  of  exhorta- 
tion.    He  said  afterward : 

^'  Fact  of  the  business,  I  were  sorter  mad, 
and  I  had  to  let  out.  Then,  spite  of  it  all,  I 
couldn't  be  conwinced  in  my  very  bones  but 
what  so  much  good  preachin'  and  ex'ortin',  and 
so  much  hard  wrasthn'  in  praar,  wasn't  a-goin' 
to  be  let  frazzle  out  jes  so  to  the  httle  end  o' 
nothin'.  I  had  heerd  older  people  than  me 
say  the  darkest  time  o'  night  is  jes  before  day, 
and  I  determ'ed  to  govern  myself  accordin'." 

Thus  far  Henry  Doster  had  seen  little  of 
the  Ogeechee  girls,  except  when  in  the  great 
congregation,  or  at  the  Ingram  tent  doorway 
when  happening  to  be  walking  past.  People 
said  that  it  looked  well  that  at  such  a  solemn 
time  he  postponed  for  a  more  exalted  society 
that  of  Ellen  Joyner,  whom  they  were  sm^e 
that,  preacher  as  he  was,  he  was  dying  to  be 
with.  Once — Saturday  afternoon  it  was — he 
did  stop  in  for  a  few  minutes  only,  but  even 
then  he  talked  more  with  Harriet  than  her. 
At  the  time  of  this  visit  Will  May  was  not 
present,  being  at  the  tent  near  by,  where  Miss 
Mary  Anderson,  whose  family  dwelt  across 
the  river,  was  staying.     Hiram  was  on  hand, 


72  OGEE  CHE E   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

and  sticky  as  a  leech,  some  said.  He  barely 
nodded  to  the  visitor  on  his  entrance,  and, 
when  the  latter  left,  was  so  absorbed  in  the 
Milledgeville  Recorder^  a  weekly  newspaper 
then  four  days  old,  that  he  did  not  notice 
him. 

As  soon  as  Tom  reached  the  camp  on  Sun- 
day, leaving  his  horse  at  the  pubhc  lot,  he 
repaired  to  the  Ingrams',  where  he  expressed 
himself  sorry  to  dechne  the  invitation  to  din- 
ner, being  under  promise  to  one  of  his  neigh- 
bors, a  humble  man  on  the  opposite  row. 
Mrs.  Ingram  declared  that  she  was  just  as 
mad  as  she  could  be ;  but  she  was  appeased 
when  he  said  that,  having  decided  to  remain 
until  after  the  night  service,  he  would  sup 
there. 

''And  don't  he  look  splendid?"  she  said  to 
Harriet,  when  he  had  gone  out  to  sit  with  the 
men  under  the  front  shed.  "  I  declare,  when 
a  man  hke  Tom  Doster,  who  has  been  work- 
ing hard  all  the  week,  comes  out  on  a  Sun- 
day in  his  nice  broadcloth  and  the  other  nice 
things  he's  got  to  put  on,  I —  But  bless  your 
heart !  child,  I've  got  too  much  business  on  my 
hands  to  be  running  on  about  Tom  Doster; 


AKD  DOj^T  he   look   SPLENDID  ?' 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  75 

and  indeed,  handsome  as  he  is,  I  think  Hen- 
I'y —  However,  many  birds  of  many  kinds, 
and  I've  got  to  miss  Brother  Duncan's  ser- 
mon, and  look  after  Simon  and  that  pig  in 
the  pit.  Mr.  Ingram  will  have  a  duck-fit  if 
it  isn't  barbecued  just  right." 

Merrily  she  kissed  her  beautiful  cousin,  and 
retreated  to  those  regions  in  the  rear,  out  of 
which  to  this  day  it  remains  a  mystery  to  me, 
and  to  aU  except  such  housewives  as  she  was, 
what  breakfasts  and  dinners  and  suppers,  and 
handings  round  on  waiters  between  times, 
were  evolved.  When  a  man  far  away  from 
such  scenes,  both  in  space  and  in  years,  be- 
gins to  talk  about  them,  he  is  prone  to  in- 
dulge too  fondly.  He  cannot  at  least  but 
love  to  muse,  amid  other  recollections,  on 
those  long,  so  long  ago  camp-meeting  days, 
and  more  on  those  camp -meeting  nights. 
Eehgiously  inclined,  earnestly  so,  indeed,  but 
not  taking  part  in  the  exciting  scenes  which 
so  many  with  varying  purposes  gathered 
there  to  witness,  when  the  bugle  would  sound 
the  call  for  silence  and  repose,  when  even  all 
mourners'  waihngs  would  be  hushed,  it  was 
a  pleasant  thing  to  take  a  rustic  chair,  and, 


76  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

leaning  against  a  post  of  the  tent,  sit  and 
listen  to  the  night  music  then  rising  in  the 
woods,  and  dream  and  dream  and  dream  of 
hopes  and  destinies  for  this  Ufe  and  the  life 
eternal. 


VI. 

Tom  had  never  heard  his  cousin  preach, 
and,  having  found  out  somehow  that  he  was 
to  do  so  that  night,  remained,  intending  to 
return  after  the  sermon,  although  he  was  to 
ride  more  than  a  dozen  miles.  He  supped  at 
the  Ingrams',  accepting,  as  if  both  were  the 
same  to  him,  the  superfluous  pohteness  of 
Will  and  the  stiff  reserve  of  Hiram.  When 
it  was  time  to  go  to  the  stand,  he  offered  his 
arm  to  the  hostess,  who,  taking  it,  said : 

"  You  all  see  what  a  genuinely  pohte  man 
can  do.  Tom,  these  boys,  not  since  here  have 
they  been,  has  either  of  them  proposed  to 
take  me  to  the  stand." 

''  Why,  Cousin  Emily,"  said  Will, ''  you  have 
been  so  busy  with  culinary  and  other  domes- 
tic affairs  that  I  hardly  beheve  you've  been 
to  the  stand  since  the  meeting  began." 

"  Makes  no  odds,  sir ;  you  should  have 
offered  your  services  the  same.  But  come 
on :  they  are  already  singing  the  first  hymn. 


78  0 GEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS, 

I  wouldn't  go  now,  but  Mr.  Ingram  told  me 
this  evening  as  a  great  secret,  which  I  hope 
it  is  no  harm  to  reveal  now,  that  Henry  was 
to  preach  to-night.  Viney  will  have  to  at- 
tend to  the  next  table,  as  I've  got  to  hear 
Henry,  no  matter  how  the  supper  goes." 

As  she  moved  off  with  her  escort,  Hn^am, 
almost  loud  enough  for  Tom  to  hear,  said  to 
Ellen,  ''  I'U  bet  my  ears  he  don't  go  home  to- 
night." 

''  Why,  brother  Hiram !"  exclaimed  Ellen. 

''  Come  ;  let  us  be  going,"  said  Harriet,  tak- 
ing Will's  arm. 

This  movement  in  punishment  of  his  rude 
speech  angered  Hiram  painfully.  He  spoke 
not,  however,  but,  giving  his  arm  to  Ellen, 
followed  the  rest.  Tom  and  Mrs.  Ingram  got 
seats  about  midway.  The  others  seated  them- 
selves several  benches  behind  them.  The  lad 
Jerry  Pound,  as  if  he  would  be  seen  in  fine 
company,  put  himseK  immediately  behind  the 
two  couples. 

"-  Hello  !  Jerry,"  whispered  Will,  during  the 
singing  of  the  second  hymn ;  "  you  here  f 

"  Oh,  yes,  Mr.  May.  Ma  and  Unk  Allen, 
spite  of  us  being  pressed  with  fodder  puUin', 


OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS.  79 

wanted  me  to  come,  and  I  thought  I'd  as 
well  come  and  see  the  crowd  and  what's  goin' 
on." 

''  Things  haven't  been  as  stuTing  and  lively 
as  usnal  this  camp-meeting,  have  they  f 

''  No — no,  sir,  Unk  Allen  say  the  very  old 
scratch  is  to  pay  in  this  congregation  ;  but  he 
say  he  mean  to  see  if  he  can't  head  him  before 
the  meetin's  over." 

""  Haven't  got  religion  yourseK  yet,  Jerry, 
it  seems  f 

"Not  quite,  sir,"  he  answered,  giggling. 
"  Unk  Allen  been  talkin'  to  me  straight  up 
and  down  when  he  could  come  up  with  me. 
I  been  dodgin'  him  because  he  talk  so  brash. 
He  say  I'm  so  fur  gone,  he's  afeared  salt 
couldn't  save  me." 

"  How  would  it  do  to  try  a  httle  saltpetre, 
Jerry  f 

"  Oh,  brother  WiU,  do  hush !"  whispered 
Harriet.     "  You  see  Mr.  Doster  has  risen." 

Will  at  once  subsided. 

Henry  Doster  already  had  gotten  some 
reputation  as  a  speaker,  although  his  efforts 
had  been  expended  mainly  among  the  hmn- 
bler  churches  of  the  circuit.     These  not  his 


80  OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS. 

cultured  tastes  nor  his  love  and  courtship 
had  availed  to  make  him  neglect,  even  when, 
more  than  once,  in  order  to  fill  an  appoint- 
ment, he  had  to  swim  his  horse  over  a  creek 
swollen  by  rains. 

"  He  have  the  right  sperrit  about  him,"  said 
one  day  good  old  Mr.  Hood,  who  for  thirty- 
five  years  and  more  had  been  fighting  his 
way  among  ''  them  Baptisses  that  jes  swarms 
about  and  around  Long's  Bridge  and  Buff'ler 
Creek.  He  behave  like  he  don't  set  hisself 
above  the  poorest  and  the  iginantest  of  us  all, 
and  my  opinions  is,  if  his  life's  spar'd,  he's 
goin'  to  weed  a  wide  row  in  the  pulpit." 

That  night,  when  he  rose  and  looked  out 
upon  the  vast  audience  before  him,  it  was 
apparent  that,  besides  the  sense  of  solemn 
responsibility,  he  labored  with  much  embar- 
rassment. His  face,  handsome  always,  now 
had  a  beauty  almost  marvellous.  The  tinge 
upon  his  cheek,  destined  soon  to  deepen,  al- 
ready appeared,  as,  with  some  trembhng  of 
voice,  he  began.  Pious  as  he  was,  man-like 
in  all  his  instincts,  he  was  not  conscious  of 
any  reference  to  himself  in  the  meditation 
that  led  to  his  text :  "  A  rich  man  shall  hardly 


OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS.  81 

enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  Yet,  on 
its  announcement,  Will  May  mischievously 
winked  at  Hiram,  and  whispered, ''  He's  aim- 
ing at  us,  Hiram." 

''  Please  be  silent !"  whispered  Harriet  again, 
in  pained  remonstrance.  Hiram  answered 
not,  but  his  grim  visage  as  he  looked  at  the 
preacher  showed  that  he  regarded  himself  as 
defied,  if  not  abeady  insulted. 

It  appeared  soon  that  the  speaker  was  com- 
petent to  take  all  the  benefit  which  the  Ro- 
man master  of  eloquence  had  taught  may  be 
gathered  from  embarrassment  by  an  orator, 
honorable,  gifted,  and  duly  inspired  with  a 
sense  of  the  importance  of  his  theme.  His 
hair,  worn  long  as  was  the  habit  then,  trem- 
bled as  he  spoke  with  tenderness  of  the  es- 
tate of  poverty,  the  seeming  mysteriousness 
of  its  ever-dming  existence  in  all  communi- 
ties, notwithstanding  our  Lord's  tender  com- 
miseration, the  necessity  of  that  continued 
existence  in  accordance  with  the  economy  of 
Him  who,  instead  of  chiding,  had  dignified 
it,  lauded,  hved  in  it  while  in  the  form  of 
humanity,  blessed  it  in  word  and  work,  and 
warned  mankind  against  its  maltreatment, 
6 


82  OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS, 

even  its  neglect.  He  had  been  speaking  but 
a  few  minutes  when  it  was  felt  by  all  that 
a  great  hght  had  risen  newly  in  the  Church. 
When  he  had  gotten  fairly  to  the  discussion 
of  his  subject  he  poured  forth  an  unbroken 
stream  of  eloquence  to  the  end.  Not  dis- 
praising riches,  instead  he  highly  commended 
efforts  to  obtain  them  by  industry,  frugahty, 
and  all  fair  methods,  and  for  purposes  recon- 
cilable with  the  claims  of  charity  and  religion. 
He  held  up  to  scorn  the  miser,  but  the  spend- 
thrift he  denounced  with  greater  severity. 
Among  many  things,  he  said : 

''  We  cannot  but  feel  some  compassion  for 
the  imhappy  miser  who,  in  his  insane  dread 
of  want,  denies  to  himself  even  the  necessa- 
ries of  his  being.  Yet  at  last  is  there  not 
something  of  the  remains  of  lost  manhood 
in  thus  looking  with  apprehension,  vain  as 
it  is,  of  becoming  dependent  in  old  age  upon 
the  charity  of  mankind?  Indeed  yea.  In- 
stead of  him,  even  him,  it  is  the  spendthrift 
who,  rioting  in  the  inheritance  devolved  upon 
him  from  the  industry  of  his  forefathers,  is 
of  all  most  to  be  despised.  The  miser,  as  if 
he  expected  to  live  forever,  works  and  saves, 


OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS,  83 

saves  and  works,  in  terror  of  dependence  at 
some  period  remote,  when  his  lovers  and 
friends,  few  as  they  may  be,  will  have  de- 
parted and  left  him  alone.     In  the  case  of 
such  a  man,  along  with  what  is  less  contempt 
than  pity,  we  must  mingle  some  respect  for 
the  rehc  of  a  nobleness  that  his  own  hands 
cannot  wholly  destroy.    But  the  spendthrift ! 
Counting  not  upon  immortahty  in  his  earth- 
ly being,  and  not  even  upon  the  entire  inde- 
structibihty  of  what  others  have  gathered  for 
his  enjoyment,  which  he  sees  wasting  con- 
tinually in  his  profligate  hands,  he  compla- 
cently expects  its  loss  to  be  supplemented  by 
earnings  from  the  sweating  labors  of  others, 
living  or  dead,  and  such  a  one,  of  all  men, 
seems  to  me  the  least  of  a  man." 

Fine  was  the  peroration  in  which  he  com- 
pared the  love  of  money,  even  when  fairly 
obtained  and  neither  meanly  hoarded  nor 
recklessly  squandered,  with  other  loves,  as 
social,  domestic,  above  all,  the  love  of  God, 
in  which  all  true  loves  meet  and  by  which 
they  are  regulated.  During  this  splendid 
declamation,  to  some,  perhaps  to  but  one,  yet 
certainly  to  her,  his  face  seemed  radiant  as 


84  OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS. 

a  seraph's.  When  it  was  ended  he  looked 
around  for  a  moment  appeahngly,  then,  bow- 
ing low,  sat  down,  and,  immediately  after  his 
successor  had  risen,  left  the  pulpit  and  dis- 
appeared. Simultaneously  Tom,  taking  leave 
of  Mrs.  Ingram,  retired,  and,  getting  his  horse, 
left  for  home. 

The  effect  of  the  sermon  all  through  its 
dehvery  was  signal.  Inter jectional  expres- 
sions, first  few  and  constrained,  became  more 
frequent  and  audible  in  and  around  the  pul- 
pit and  the  enclosed  space  in  front  called  the 
altar.  Mr.  Swinger's  deportment  throughout 
was  interesting.  At  first  his  face  indicated 
apprehension  extremely  painful.  Soon  he 
hfted  his  bowed  head  and  looked  with  beam- 
ing face  upon  the  audience,  as  the  youthful 
orator  went  every  moment  higher  beyond  his 
most  eager  hopes.  Fearing  he  might  embar- 
rass him  by  too  hearty  manifestations  of  de- 
light, now  he  would  bow  his  face  low,  cover- 
ing it  tightly  with  his  hands,  and  now  hft  it 
on  high  and  sternly  contemplate  the  rafters 
above,  or  endeavor  to  peer  through  the  dark- 
ness into  the  forest  behind,  as  if  not  cogni- 
zant of  what  was  going  on  before  him  or  in- 


OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS.  85 

difeerent  to  it.  Often  he  crossed  Ms  legs  and 
I'ecrossed  them,  or  pressing  his  knees  together 
held  them  fast  in  his  arms  clasped  beneath, 
as  if  without  such  precautionary  restraint 
they  would  kick,  in  front  or  back,  the  board- 
ing from  the  pulpit.  When  the  sermon  was 
ended,  with  a  voice  heard  in  the  stilly  night 
more  than  a  mile  away,  he  shouted,  "  Glory 
be  to  God !"  and  it  was  echoed  by  hundreds 
of  tongues. 
Ellen  and  Harriet  both  rose  in  tears. 
''  Let's  quit  this  place,"  said  Hiram,  rising, 

low,  but  his  face  livid  with  anger. 

"Not  yet,"   answered  Ellen,  wiping  her 

eyes.     "  Go  if  you  wish,  brother,  and  Will 

also,  if  he's  tired.     Harriet  and  I  can  get 

back  to  the  tent  by  ourselves." 

''Oh,  no,"  said  Will;  '^let  us  stay,  Hiram, 

and  see  them  through.     Old  man  Swinger  is 

on  his  high  horse,  and  we'll  have  some  tall 

riding." 

Hu^am  resumed  his  seat  and,  leaning  back, 
looked  with  disdain  at  Mr.  Swinger  as  he  rose 
with  both  arms  wide  extended:  "Brothin 
and  sisters,"  he  began,  'Hhe  fact  of  the  busi- 
ness is,  I  don't  feel  like  ex'ortin'  this  here 


86  0  GEE  CHE E   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

congregation,  away  up  here  in  this  here  pul- 
pit. We've  been  a-invitin'  o'  these  people 
two  days,  and  this  make  three  nights,  and 
we  been  pohte  as  if  we  been  a-askin'  'em  to 
a  weddin'  or  a  candy-pulhn',  and  up  tell  now 
and  down  tell  now  they  been  a  monst'ous  few 
that  they  have  seem  to  keer  no  more  for 
keepin'  theirselves  out  of  fire  and  brimstone 
nor  not  as  much  as  when  they  tryin'  to  prize 
out  one  o'  their  waggins  that's  been  stallded 
in  a  mud-hole.  And  the  long  and  short  of 
it  is,  I'm  a-goin'  to  git  out  o'  here  and  go  to 
char  gin'  on  'em ;  and  "  (sUghtly  turning  his 
face  rearward), ''  I  want  Henry  Dawster — 
Grodamighty  bless  his  soul  and  body!  —  I 
want  him  when  he  rest  awhile,  and  he  see 
me  a-wantin'  o'  help — I  want  him  to  f oiler 
me  and  charge  on.  Time  he  was  a-beginnin' 
to  learn  how  to  charge,  well  as  ockepy  the 
pulpit." 

Descending  and  slowly  advancing,  in  lan- 
guage and  tones  mingled  of  disgust,  admoni- 
tion, command,  threatening,  he  roared :  "  All 
you  everlastin'  sinners  and  worldlyans,  them 
among  you  that  they  feel  that  if  you  ain't 
anxious,  you  some  ruther  keep  out  of  hell 


OGEE  CHE E   CROSS-FIRINGS.  87 

than  go  thar,  I  want  yon  to  come  into  this 
here  altar  here,  and  drap  down  on  your  mar- 
rer-bones  and  acknowledge  to  Godamighty 
ef  not  quite  all,,  some  of  the  biggest  o'  your 
meanness,  and  beg  him  if  he  can't  be  kind 
enough  and  condescendin'  enough  to  spar' 
you.     Come  on,"  he  thundered,  as  they  be- 
gan to  pour  in, ''  come  a  right  along.    It  ain't 
yit  quite  too  late,  but  it's  a  been  a-gittin'  late 
on  you,  and  that  rapid.     O  you  money-git- 
ters  and  you  money-lovers,  with  your  broad- 
cloth and  your  high -heel  boots,  and  them 
that's  too  stingy  to  buy  'em !     0  you  that 
has  land  and  niggers  and  horses  and  mules 
and  cattle  and  sheep  and  hogs,  and  all  the 
'purtenances  to  them  a-belongin',  and  a-ex- 
pectin'  all  them  to  foller  you  to  the  grave, 
and  wait  on  you  and  pomper  you  thar,  and 
some  of  you  the  more  you've  got,  the  meaner 
and  stingier  you've  got,  and  it's  come  to  that 
that  whut  you've  got  does  you  no  more  good 
than  the  fift'  wheel  of  a  waggin,  and  so  the 
good-f or-nothiner  you've  got,  all  of  you  come 
along:  that's  a  right:  come  a  right  along! 
It  may  be  a  hard  p'ints  for  the  old  ship  o' 
Zion  to  take  you  aU  aboard  with  all  your 


88  OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS. 

ongodly  baggages  of  sin  and  wickedness  she 
have  to  k'yar  for  some  of  the  torndownishest 
among  you.  But  come  along ;  she'll  take  yon 
on,  even  if  yon  sink  her.  And  them  that 
mayn't  feel  hke  a-comin'  plum  in  to  the  al- 
tar, let  them  knuckle  down  whar  they  sets, 
and  we'll  try  to  do  somethin'  for  'em  even 
thar." 

By  this  time  he  had  advanced  quite  near 
where  our  party  was  seated.  The  girls,  fol- 
lowing Mrs.  Ingram,  who,  at  Tom  Doster's 
departure,  had  moved  and  taken  a  seat  by 
them,  knelt  upon  the  straw,  and  William 
May,  half  rechning,  leaned  his  head  upon  the 
bench  in  front  of  him.  But  Hh-am  rose,  and, 
standing  erect,  conspicuous  among  hundreds, 
confronted  the  preacher  with  menacing  look. 
The  latter,  as  he  admitted  afterwards,  felt 
violently  aroused  all  the  native  combative 
temper  of  his  being  before  this  enemy  of  all 
goodness,  especially  of  his  beloved  Henry. 
He  paused  a  moment,  as  if  revolving  how 
best  to  meet  such  audacious  defiance  of  one 
of  whose  personal  malignant  hostility  he  was 
well  convinced;  then,  regarding  him  with 
scorn,  bui'st  forth  thus  ; 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  89 

"  Yes  :  and  you  conceited,  extravagant,  im- 
pident  young  chaps,  that  I  am't  shore  but 
whut  you're  the  triflin'est  of  the  whole  lot, 
that  you  do  nothin'  but  run  about  and  spend 
the  money  your  daddies  worked  for,  and  died 
and  left  you,  and  a-spendin'  it  on  nobody  and 
on  nothin'  but  your  own  k'yarcasses,  and  then 
mayby  a-expectin'  to  marry  them  that  got 
prop'ty  when  whut  you  got  is  done  squan- 
dered and  gone — I  pass  sech  as  you  by  as 
them  that's  made  up  their  mind  to  go  to  the 
devil  whut  not ;  and  if  so  be,  why,  go  !  and 
Godamighty,  if  He  can,  have  mercy  on  your 
mean,  ornary,  good-f or-nothin'  souls !" 

Waving  his  hand  with  contempt,  he  took 
another  stride,  when  an  object  of  nearer  in- 
terest was  presented  before  him.  For  several 
minutes  Jerry  Pound,  not  able  to  back  him- 
self through  the  pressing  throngs,  had  been 
crawling,  or  so  endeavoring,  beneath  the 
benches,  and  at  this  moment  had  risen,  per- 
haps to  get  more  air,  climbing  by  one  of  the 
pillars  of  the  arbor,  behind  which  he  tried 
to  dodge  from  his  uncle.  When  the  latter 
espied  him  he  laughed  aloud,  and  with  the 
fiercest  glee  shouted: 


90  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

''  Oh,  yon  needn't  be  a-tryin'  to  dodge  be- 
hind that  thar  post,  Jerry  Ponnd.  Ye're  hke 
a  rabbit  that's  ben  rnnned  into  his  holler, 
and  you  got  to  twist  him  out  with  a  forked 
stick.  To  think,  my  own  sister's  son,  that's 
made  her  peace  with  the  good  Lord  a  long 
ago,  and  with  the  egzample  of  sech  a  mother, 
and  at  sech  a  time  when  he  see  this  people's 
hearts  a-workin'  up,  and  him  a-tryin'  to  dodge 
the  onhest  uncle  he's  got,  and  hide  behind 
the  arbor  post  ruther'n  he'll  have  saved  his 
everlastin'  no-'count  soul ! — I  declar'  it's  jest 
too  bad  for  a  body  to  put  up  with  for  any 
use  under  the  sun.  Ih  hi !  you  dodger !  You 
find  you  can't  dodge  to  the  extent  you  been 
a-countin'  on.  Once't  or  twice't  before  I  didn't 
know  but  whut  I  had  you;  but  you  that 
slick  and  shckery  that  a  body,  same  as  a 
eel,  they  got  to  put  sand  in  then'  hand  to 
git  a  hvin'  holt  on  you.  Come  along  here, 
sir." 

Fastening  his  teeth  together  as  if  to  re- 
strain intemperate  wrath  and  objurgation,  he 
caught  the  fugitive  by  the  arm  and  dragged 
him  with  such  force  that  when  he  reached 
the  aisle,  partially  cleared  by  the  people,  he 


OQEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS.  91 

fell  prone  upon  his  knees.  Then  Mr.  Swinger, 
seizing  his  coat  collar  with  one  hand,  and  with 
the  other  the  trousers  around  his  middle,  and 
crying, ''  Cler  the  way  thar  for  this  waggin- 
load  of  ini-quitty !"  made  for  the  altar.  Ar- 
rived there,  he  released  Jerry's  collar,  and  let 
his  head  come  down  quick  but  unhurt  upon 
the  abundant  oat  straw,  saying,  "-  Thar!  any- 
how you  shall  go  through  the  motions !" 

Then  high  above  the  cries  of  mourners 
and  shouters  rose  the  jubilant  wail  of  Mrs. 
Pound,  as,  pushing  her  way  within,  she  lifted 
her  great  turkey -tail  and  fanned  her  son, 
wedged  among  the  kneeling  multitudes.  Mr. 
Swinger,  panting,  turned  towards  the  pulpit 
and  cried : 

"And  now,  Henry,  my  boy,  I  ain't  agzact- 
ly  broke  down,  but  I'm  a  tired  a-haulin'  and 
a-totin'  o'  that  mess.  And  yit,"  softening  to 
the  prostrate  boy,  "  there  is  many  a  heavier 
load  in  this  congregation  than  whut  that 
poor  orphan  boy  is,  which  he's  hard-workin' 
as  the  days  is  long,  and  'twer'n'  for  his  play- 
in'  marbles  of  a  Sunday  and  sich,  ef  he  had 
grace  he'd  be  the  ekal  of  many  that  think 
theirselves  far  above  him.     But  come  along, 


92  OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS. 

Henry,  and  go  to  chargin'  awhile  tell  my 
wind  come  f a'rly  back.     Whar's  Henry  f 

One  of  the  preachers  whispered  that  Henry 
had  left  the  pulpit  and  the  stand  immediate- 
ly after  his  sermon.  The  words  of  disappoint- 
ment, if  any  were  uttered,  were  silenced  by 
the  lifting  of  a  hymn,  during  the  singing  of 
which  many,  in  answer  to  Mr.  Swinger's 
charge,  and  many  more  in  spite  of  it,  came 
and  knelt  within  and  around  the  altar. 

Such  was  the  beginning  of  a  revival  long 
remembered,  in  which  many  were  added  to 
the  Church,  among  whom,  I  hardly  need 
mention,  was  that  reprobate  Sabbath-breaker, 
Jerry  Pound. 


VII. 

DuKiNG  the  sermon  of  Henry  Doster  the 
attention  of  all  persons,  even  those  of  mod- 
erate culture,  had  been  fixed  by  the  power 
which  an  eloquence  unrivalled  in  their  expe- 
rience must  exert.  He  had  transcended  aU 
expectation,  showing  at  the  same  time  that 
he  had  kept  a  reserve  of  strength  yet  greater. 
Many  times  during  its  delivery  the  girls  most 
interested  in  his  endeavor  shed  tears,  Harriet 
as  freely  as  Ellen.  Even  WiUiam  May  was 
touched  with  something  like  a  generous  en- 
thusiasm, under  the  impulse  of  which,  at  the 
close,  he  said  to  Harriet : 

"  I  didn't  dream  that  he  had  such  powers. 
It  beat  anything  I  ever  heard." 

When  the  charge  of  Mr.  Swinger  was  over, 
smihngly  he  looked  at  Hiram,  whose  face  was 
red-hot  with  resentment. 

"  Will,"  said  the  latter,  "  if  EUen  wants  to 
stay  longer  in  this  cursed  place,  you  can  see 


94  OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS, 

her  to  the  tent.    I  want  to  speak  to  a  person 
outside." 

He  left  at  once,  and,  passing  out,  made  for 
the  preachers'  tent,  and  inquired  for  Henry 
Doster.  He  was  answered  that  Henry  on 
his  return  from  the  stand  had  thrown  on 
his  overcoat  and  walked  out,  sa}dng  that  he 
would  stroll  for  a  while  in  the  woods  at  the 
rear.  Hiram  walked  back  and  forth  for  some 
time ;  then  returned  to  the  tent.  The  girls 
had  retired.  Never  had  he  felt  so  ^n?athful. 
He  beheved  fully  that  it  had  been  precon- 
certed between  Henry  Doster  and  Mr.  Swing- 
er that  this  movement,  covert  in  one,  auda- 
ciously open  in  the  other,  was  to  be  made 
upon  him.  In  vain  Will  May,  who  said  he 
suspected  nothing  of  the  kind,  advised  him 
to  let  the  matter  drop. 

''  Hiram,"  he  said, ''  I'm  afraid  you  are  go- 
ing to  do  something  imprudent.  Henry  Dos- 
ter alluded  no  more  to  you  than  to  me,  or  to 
any  other  young  man  of  our  habits.  He  is 
too  much  of  a  gentleman  to  have  meant  any- 
thing personal  of  any  individual  in  a  pulpit 
discourse.  As  for  old  man  Swinger,  you 
worried  him  by  rising  when  you  did,  and 


OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS.  95 

getting  as  it  were  in  his  path  with  threat- 
ening look.  He  can't  stand  a  dare,  being 
plucky  to  the  backbone.  Let's  drop  it  and 
go  to  bed." 

But  Hiram  sat  before  the  tent  for  hours 
and  brooded. 

On  the  next  morning  Henry  Doster  came 
there  to  hold  prayers  and  to  breakfast.  All 
met  his  courteous  salutation  with  heartiness 
except  Hiram,  who,  not  appearing  at  prayers 
and  coming  to  the  breakfast-table  after  the 
blessing  was  asked,  did  not  notice  the  rev- 
erend guest. 

''  Mr.  Swinger  came  down  heavy  on  sin- 
ners in  general  last  night,  Mr.  Ingram,"  said 
a  young  man  who  sat  near  the  host. 

''  Oh,  yes,"  answered  Mr.  Ingram  ;  '*  the 
old  gentleman  has  his  ways ;  but  if  there 
are  any  better  men,  I  don't  know  where  to 
go  to  find  them." 

^'  Some  of  his  remarks,"  said  Hiram, ''  were 
grossly  insulting  to  me,  at  whom  they  were 
openly  pointed.  But  he  has  not  the  educa- 
tion nor  the  breeding  to  behave  otherwise. 
In  this  case  I  have  no  doubt  he  was  put  up 
to  it  by  some  one  else." 


96  OGEE  CHE E  CROSS-FIRINGS. 

Mr.  Ingram  frowned.  Henry  paused  in  his 
eating,  his  face  pale  and  his  eyes  dilating. 
Ellen  hastily  retired  from  the  table.  Har- 
riet, her  cheeks  shghtly  reddening,  glanced 
momentarily  at  Hiram  ;  then,  having  canght 
Henry  Doster's  eye,  put  her  finger  to  her 
hps.  Instantly  he  smiled,  and  addressed  a 
remark  to  Mr.  Ingram  upon  a  subject  so  re- 
mote fi^om  Mr.  Swinger  that  Hiram,  anguish- 
ing from  the  contempt  thus  put  upon  his 
words,  rose  also  before  his  breakfast  was 
finished,  and,  as  Henry  was  in  the  act  of 
leaving  the  tent,  said  to  him,  abruptly, 

"  I  wish  to  have  a  few  words  with  you  in 
private,  sir." 

"  Certainly,  Mr.  Joyner.  They  told  me  at 
our  tent  last  night  that  you  had  called  for 
me,  and  it  was  partly  for  that  I  came  here 
this  morning.     Shall  we  take  a  walk  f 

"  Yes,  sir,  wherever  you  say." 

"  We  will  go  to  yonder  woods,  then,"  he 
said,  pointing  beyond  the  preachers'  tent. 

When  they  had  gone,  Ellen  said  to  her 
friend :  ''  Oh,  Han4et !  Harriet !  brother  is 
beside  himself.  After  that  insult  at  the 
breakfast-table,  there's  no  telling  what  he'U 


OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS.  97 

say  or  do  when  he  gets  Henry  off  to  him- 
seK.  I'm  almost  sorry  I  didn't  tell  him  ev- 
erything." 

''  It  would  have  made  matters  worse,  my 
dear.  Be  sure  that  Tom's  counsel  is  the 
best,  and  don't  be  afraid  but  that  Henry  wiU 
take  care  of  himself." 

''  Poor  brother  has  started  the  issue,  as  I 
knew  he  would ;  but  I  did  not  expect  it  to 
come  in  that  way." 

''  Nor  I ;  yet  it  is  the  very  best  in  which 
it  could  have  come.  It's  just  a  piece  of 
splendid  luck ;  that's  what  it  is.  Oh,  I'm 
so  glad  that  Tom  went  home  last  night ! 
Cheer  up,  little  one.  It  will  all  come  right, 
and  the  sooner  for  that  very  walk  that  Hi- 
ram is  taking  with  Henry." 

Then  she  put  her  arms  around  EUen,  and 
almost  bore  her  to  their  chamber. 

"  Come  straight  with  me  and  finish  that 
breakfast,  miss,"  said  Mrs.  Ingram,  entering 
the  room.  Ellen  obeyed,  and  neither  re- 
ferred to  the  occasion  of  her  having  left  the 
table.  Yet  the  hostess  could  not  forbear  say- 
ing to  Harriet  afterwards  :  "  Somebody  will 
have  to  put  a  strait- jacket  on  Hiram  if  his 
7 


98  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

foolishness  is  not  stopped.  I've  never  seen 
Mr.  Ingram  so  angry.  He  declares  that  but 
for  Ellen  and  his  mother  he  would  have  or- 
dered him  from  the  table  and  the  tent.  But 
did  ever  a  man  show  the  gentleman  more 
beautifully  than  Henry  Doster?  I  don't 
blame  Ellen  for  being  so  in  love  with  him ; 
she  just  couldn't  help  it." 

"  He  did  indeed.  Hiram  is  either  worse 
or  he  has  less  sense  than  I  thought.  But 
he'U  see  that  his  conduct  will  have  expedited 
what  he  hopes  to  prevent." 

''Howf 

^'  Never  mind  now.    You'll  see  before  long." 

''I  wish  I  hadn't  invited  him  to  this 
tent." 

"I  am  glad  you  did,  and  thankful  that  he 
came." 

The  woods  in  the  rear  of  the  preachers'  tent, 
to  the  extent  of  twenty  acres  or  so,  by  imme- 
morial usage  were  regarded  as  not  to  be  en- 
tered during  the  camp  except  by  the  clergy  or 
others  accompanied  by  one  or  more  of  them. 
Hither  these  were  wont  to  resort,  sometimes 
in  twos  and  threes,  sometimes  singly,  in  the 
intervals  of  their  service  at  the  stand,  for  the 


OQEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 


99 


sake  of  exercise  and  meditation.     Thither 
these  young  men  wended. 

"  The  fall  mil  soon  be  upon  us,  you  notice, 
Mr.  Joyner,"  said  the  preacher,  pointing  to 
the  browning  and  yellowing  of  the  forest 
leaves,  as  they  were  entering. 

"  My  object,"  answered  the  other, ''  was  not 
to  discuss  the  seasons  with  you,  sii^,  but—" 

"  I  did  not  so  understand  yom^  request  for 
an  interview,"  was  the  quick  reply;  ''but  I 
suggest  that  we  postpone  reference  to  the 
matter  you  have  on  your  mind  until  we  reach 
a  spot  where  we  may  consider  it  without  in- 
curring risk  of  being  observed." 

"As  you  please,  sir." 

Nothing  more  was  said  by  either  until  they 
had  proceeded  a  distance  of  a  couple  of  hun- 
dred yards,  to  a  spot  where  was  a  dense  growth 
of  dogwood  and  crab-apple.  Here  Henry  halt- 
ed, and  seating  himself  upon  the  trunk  of  a 
tree  that  had  fallen,  he  looked  up  mildly  and 
said: 

"  Well,  sir,  as  your  business  seems  urgent, 
too  much  so  to  be  put  off  until  I  can  get 
through  with  some  rather  pressing  engage- 
ments, I  am  now  at  your  service." 


100  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

His  calmness,  so  different  from  what  he 
had  expected,  irritated  Hiram  yet  more.  He 
said,  bluntly,  as  he  well  knew  how : 

"  I've  been  intending  for  some  time  to  tell 
you,  sh^,  that  I  wanted  you  to  stop  your  visits 
to  my  house  and  your  attentions  to  my  sister." 

''  Why  have  you  not  done  so,  Mr.  Joyner, 
before  now,  when  you  find  me  so  preoccu- 
pied f 

''  Because  I  have  not  had  a  suitable  oppor- 
tunity, sir.  I  intended  to  wait  until  the  camp- 
meeting  was  over,  and  would  have  done  so 
but  for  your  thrusting  forward  last  night  that 
old  ruflftan  to  insult  and  outrage  me,  and  I 
determined  then  to  wait  no  longer.  I  sought 
you  last  night,  but  was  not  able  to  find  you." 

"  So  they  informed  me  at  our  tent  on  my 
retm-n  from  a  walk.  To  whom  do  you  allude 
in  yoiu'  use  of  the  word  ^  ruffian '  ?" 

'^  I  allude,  as  in  spite  of  your  pretended 
ignorance  you  know  very  well,  to  old  Mr. 
Swinger." 

''  I  did  indeed  suspect  that  you  were  refer- 
ring to  that  gentleman,  startled  as  I  was  that 
a  man  young  as  you  would  speak  thus  of  one 
so  much  your  elder,  whom  you  must  know  to 


OGEE  CHE E   CROSS-FIRINGS.  101 

be  held  in  much  respect,  indeed  in  much  rev- 
erence, wherever  he  is  known." 

At  that  moment  a  shght  noise  among  the 
leaves  was  heard,  and  a  gray  squirrel  came 
tripping  along  and  made  for  a  large  poplar- 
tree  near  by,  in  a  fork  of  which  was  a  nest. 
Arrived  there,  the  pretty  thing  turned  sud- 
denly, ran  up  an  adjacent  oak,  and,  halting 
on  one  of  the  lower  branches,  commenced 
chattering  earnestly,  as  if  in  admonition  to 
the  two  men  below.  Henry  Doster  looked 
up  as,  brandishing  its  full-spread  tail,  it  con- 
tinued to  pour  forth. 

''  Your  attention,  sir !"  said  Hiram,  in  com- 
manding tone. 

''I  crave  pardon,  sir,"  Henry  answered, 
pleasantly  bowing.  ''  It  was  doubtless  a  mere 
vagary  of  my  thoughts  to  imagine  for  a  mo- 
ment if  that  httle  beast  were  trying  to  express 
its  regret  for  the  words  with  which  you  just 
now  characterized  so  excellent  a  man  as  the 
Eeverend  Mr.  Swinger.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
I  aver  most  positively  that  I  did  not  know  be- 
forehand a  word  that  he  was  going  to  say  in 
his  exhortation  last  night,  if  that  was  the  oc- 
casion of  his  fancied  offence  to  yourself ;  in- 


102  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

deed,"  he  added,  smiling,  "  I  doubt  if  lie  knew, 
as  he  usually  speaks  on  such  occasions  ac- 
cording to  the  inspiration  that  he  feels  prompt- 
ed by.  However,  passing  that  by  for  the  time, 
and  referring  to  your  first  remark,  wherein 
you  notify  me  of  your  wishes  regarding  your 
house,  as  you  style  it,  and  some  attentions 
that  I  have  had  the  honor  to  pay  to  your  sis- 
ter, I  will  answer  that  my  impression  all  along 
has  been  that  the  mansion  in  which  you  re- 
side along  with  your  mother  and  her  belonged 
to  them  jointly  with  yourself,  and  having  been 
treated  by  them,  on  the  few  occasions  when 
I  have  been  there,  with  much  courteousness, 
I  am  not  quite  sure  that  I  shall  observe  that 
portion  of  your  demand ;  but  I  think — yes,  I 
rather  think  that,  at  least  for  some  time,  I 
will." 

''  /  rather  think  you  will,  sir." 

''Perhaps  you  do.  It  concerns  me  little 
whether  you  do  or  not.  As  to  the  other  por- 
tion, I  must  say  to  you  frankly  that  I  shall 
pay  no  sort  of  attention  to  it  whenever  I  may 
happen  to  meet  Miss  Joyner,  unless  I  find 
that  her  will  in  that  behalf  coincides  with 
yours." 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  103 

''In  the  name  of  Godr  said  Hiram,  labor- 
ing hard  to  repress  the  loudness  of  his  voice, 
''  what  is  a  man  to  do  in  such  a  case  f 

After  meditating  a  moment  Henry  an- 
swered: ''What  would  you  do,  pray,  sir,  if 
the  object  of  your  present  ire,  instead  of  my- 
self, were  my  relative,  Mr.  Thomas  Dosterf 
Then  he  again  looked  up  at  the  squirrel,  which 
had  run  up  to  a  higher  Ihnb,  and  was  contin- 
uing its  warnings. 

With  deep  scorn  Hiram  replied:  ''But  for 
Mr.  Thomas  Doster's  leaving  the  camp  after 
your  Fourth  of  July  oration  I  should  have 
made  through  him  the  demand  just  put  to  you 
in  person.  It  is  not  relevant  to  consider  what 
I  might  do  were  he  in  your  case,  notwith- 
standing I  will  say  that  his  vicarious  visits 
and  attentions  to  my  family  are  disgusting 
to  me ;  infinitely  less  so,  however,  if  for  his 
own  personal  ends,  would  they  be  than  his 
cousin's.  No  one  could  regret  more  than  I 
do,  on  all  accounts,  that  I  have  not  to  deal 
with  that  gentleman,  who,  as  I  have  always 
beheved,  has  some  sense  of  honor  and  respon- 
sibility, instead  of  his  preaching  cousin,  who 
seeks  to  thrust  himself  into  my  family,  and 


104  OGEE  CHE E   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

that,  as  I  verily  believe,  by  maligning  a  man 
whom  everybody  who  knows  my  sister,  and 
whom  she  herself  until  lately,  have  been  ex- 
pecting that  she  would  marry.  If  you  were 
not  a  preacher — even  as  it  is  I  can  hardly 
refrain  from  putting  on  the  black  cloth  you 
wear  to  screen  your  person  from  violence 
such  marks  as  would  disgrace  you  in  her  eyes 
and  all  others'.  And  I  now  warn  you,  sir, 
that  unless  you  cease  your — " 

"  Hold,  sir — hold  for  a  brief  moment,  I  pray 
you,"  interrupted  Henry,  still  sitting,  as  Hi- 
ram stood  writhing  with  passion.  ''  Mr.  Hi- 
ram Joyner,  I  do  not  know  how  much  I  ought 
to  feel  gratified  by  your  words  in  praise  of 
my  cousin.  If  they  had  been  more  cordial 
they  would  have  approximated  nearer  his  de- 
serts. But,  sir,  it  is  not  true  that  I  have  ever 
sought,  and  I  claim  to  be  a  man  incapable  of 
seeking,  to  win  the  hand  of  any  woman,  or 
any  other  object  that  I  may  deem  necessary 
to  my  well-being,  by  the  employment  of  such 
arts  as  you  mention.  Having  answered  this 
much  to  the  insulting  charge  which  your 
manhness,  it  seems,  was  not  enough  to  with- 
hold you  from  bringing  without  proof,  I  have 


OGEEGHEE   GROSS-FIRINGS.  105 

now  to  add  that  my  profession,  or,  the  better 
to  suit  your  taste,  the  sort  of  clothes  I  wear, 
will  help,  I  trust,  to  defend  me  against  many 
a  real  danger,  but  I  assure  you  that  I  neither 
rely  upon  them  as  much  as  a  jot  now,  nor 
shall  I  hereafter  in  any  possible  conflict  with 
you.  For  the  sake  of  others  of  your  family  I 
restrain  the  words  that  would  rise  to  my  hps 
in  further  answer  to  your  charges  and  your 
threatenings,  except  to  say  that  I  brand  the 
former  as  grossly  false,  and  that  I  despise  the 
latter  as  vain  menaces  of  a  childish  bragga- 
docio." 

He  then  rose  and  looked  with  calm  defi- 
ance upon  his  adversary. 

^'  Grod  !"  exclaimed  Hiram,  overpowered  by 
rage.  Taking  a  step  backward,  and  closing 
his  fingers  tightly,  he  raised  his  hand  on  high. 
Henry  sprang  forward  and  seized  his  arm. 
At  that  moment,  hke  the  bull  of  Marathon 
or  him  of  Bashan,  Mr.  Swinger  rushed  from 
behind  the  poplar,  and  as  he  put  himself  be- 
tween the  combatants,  elbowing  them  apart, 
said,  in  merry  tones  : 

''  No,  you  won't ;  not  quite  you  won't ;  not 
if  old  Allen  Swinger  know  hisself." 


VIII. 

No  man  could  have  foreseen  wliat  would 
have  been  the  issue  of  the  contest.  At  least 
so  could  not  Mr.  Swinger ;  otherwise  his  de- 
portment, as  they  were  presently  assured, 
would  have  been  different.  The  young  men 
could  not  but  separate  under  the  repulsion 
of  those  stalwart  arms.  He  looked  at  Hiram 
with  angry  disdain,  as  the  latter  recoiled  with 
some  sense  of  shame  for  having  given  way 
to  his  passion  so  far  beyond  what  he  had  in- 
tended. 

"  Hime  Jyner  "—flattening  his  hps  against 
his  teeth— ''want  to  know  how  come  I  here'? 
Well,  I  tell  you.  I  see  you  and  Henry  Daws- 
ter  a-movin'  to  these  woods,  and  I  knowed 
from  some  o'  your  talk  in  the  neighborhood 
I  heered  about  you  was  up  to  some  sort  o' 
deYil-ment,  and  so  I  circled  around,  I  did,  and 
I  took  my  stand  behind  that  poplar  thar.  Oh, 
you  can  come  down  now,  you  little  varmint" 
—looking  up  at  the  squirrel,  that  had  not  yet 


mME   JTNER,  "WANT  TO  KNOW   HOW   COME   I   HERE  ?' 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  109 

ceased  its  complainings ;  ''  you  like  to  told  on 
me,  though  I  weren't  after  your  young  'uns. 
Gro  'long  home !" 

The  squirrel  took  him  at  his  word,  descend- 
ed, tripped  joyously  to  the  poplar,  and  was 
soon  hidden  within  its  nest. 

''And  now,"  Mr.  Smnger  resumed,  ''you 
want  to  know  how  come  I  to  part  you  two  % 
Well,  I'll  up  and  tell  you  that,  too.     It  were 
jes  because  I  were  'spicioned  Henry  Dawster 
a  bein'  ruther  hght  weight,  and  not  used  to 
sech,  you  might  of  ben  too  much  for  him. 
Understand?     If  I  hadn't   ben  jubous  on 
them  p'ints  in  my  mind  I'd  a  stood  back  and 
a  let  him  lam  you  till  you  hollered  and  out 
with  some  o'  your  meanness.     The  good  Lord 
know  I  ain't  for  fightin'  when  it  can  be  holp; 
but  when  it  can't,  then  I'm  for  pitchin'  in; 
and  when  I  mn  in,  I'm  for  fannin'  out  the 
concern,  even  if  I  does  have  a  rewivle  on  my 
hands.     And  let  me  tell  you,  Hime  Jyner,  if 
it  have  ben  me,  'stid  o'  this  yearlin'  of  a  boy, 
no  sooner'n  you  out  with  your  oudacious  sass, 
I'd  a  whirled  in  on  you  and  I'd  a  frazzled  you 
out  to  that  you'd  a  ben  thankful  to  be  let  take 
it  all  back.     I'm  not  a-denyin'  I  were  meanin' 


110  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

some  o'  my  words  last  night  for  you  along  o' 
t'other  ongodly  chaps,  that  you  special  got 
right  in  the  path  o'  my  chargin'  and  looked 
that  impident  that  I  were  jes  ableeged  to  give 
you  a  passin'  wipe ;  but  when  you  say  I  were 
put  up  by  this  boy  here — when  you  say  iliat^ 
you  tell  a — " 

^' There, there,  Brother  Swinger!"  exclaimed 
Henry,  ^'  do  not — I  beg  you  do  not  utter  the 
word.  Mr.  Joyner  doubtless  beheved  to  be 
true  what  he  said." 

"Well" — reluctantly  lowering  the  arm  he 
had  raised — ''  I'll  do  as  you  say,  Henry.  May- 
by  he  did.  But  it  go  to  show  whut  fool  no- 
tions some  people  have,  that  they  think  so 
much  more  o'  theirself  than  t'other  people 
know  they're  worth  that  they'll  go  off  half- 
cocked,  and  nothin'  but  a  flash  in  the  pan  at 
that.  Now,  Hime  Jyner,  your  father,  Zekil 
Jyner,  were  a  man  I  thought  a  heap  of,  'spite 
o'  his  bein'  sech  a  streenious  Babtis'.  But 
yit  he  were  a  man  o'  them  kind  that  he'd  a 
never  denied  a  bein'  o'  that,  nor  whatsonever 
else  he  might  think  it  were  his  juty ;  and  he 
were  not  a  man  to  jes  find  fau't  and  make  a 
huUaballoo  with  people  that  he  have  no  more 


OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS.  m 

occasion  than  you  lias  with  me  or  Henry 
Dawster,  ary  one,  without  you  jes  natchuilly 
thinks  people  belongs  to  you  to  order  'em 
about  as  you  please — hanh  f 

''  If  he  is  through,  sir,"  said  Hiram,  sullen- 
ly, still  looking  only  at  Henry,  ^'I  withdraw 
the  charge  which  Mr.  Swinger— though  with 
his  usual  extreme  rudeness — has  convinced 
me  to  have  been  without  just  foundation. 
It  is  possible  that  I  was  overhasty  in  refer- 
ring in  such  terms  to  your  profession ;  but 
the  demand  I  made  regarding  your  deport- 
ment towards  my  family  I  repeat,  and  I  shall 
trust  to  be  able  to  enforce  it.  As  for  Mr. 
Swinger,  he  is  too  old  a  man  for  me  even  to 
think  of  resenting  his  coarse  insults." 

He  then  turned  and  walked  rapidly  away. 
"Old  or  young,"  answered  Mr.  Swinger, 
loud  enough  to  be  heard  but  for  the  sway- 
ing shrubbery  and  the  sound  of  the  trampled 
leaves,  "  he  could  fan  you  out  so  bad  you'd 
have  to  be  took  up  and  took  home  in  pieces. 
In  my  day  I  wanted  no  better  fun  than  to 
handle  sech  as  you,  two  at  a  time.  Sher, 
boy!  sher!" 
Henry  had  sat  down  again  and  covered 


112  OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS. 

his  face  with  his  hands.  Looking  fondly 
upon  him,  the  old  man  said : 

''Come,  my  son,  take  down  them  hands 
and  liven  up.  Thar's  nothin'  to  cry  about, 
nor  not  even  to  be  sorry  about,  exceptin'  it's 
for  not  hckin'  that  bar  into  some  sort  o'  shape; 
which,  I  hadn't  been  af eered  you  was  too  light 
weight  for  the  above,  I'd  a  let  you  a  done  it. 
It  ain't  of'n  a  Meth'dis'  preacher  liave  to  fight; 
but  when  he  do  it's  a  positive  needcessity  for 
him  to  whup  the  fight,  or  he'll  git  that  cowed 
that  he  can't  preach  the  blessed  gospel  effec- 
uil  like  it  got  to  be  preached  to  make  head- 
way with  the  gen'ration  o'  sinners  we  has  to 
deal  with  in  this  gen'ration  o'  people.  The 
good  Lord  don't  want  them  he  have  choosed 
for  to  preach  his  word  to  go  about  a-makin' 
2i practice  o'  fightin',  and  pickin'  up  fights  with 
Tom,  Dick,  and  Harry;  but  nother  do  he 
want  'em  to  be  a-backin'  down  when  people 
tries  to  run  over  'em.  So  git  up  and  look 
peert.     You  got  to  preach  agin  to-night." 

The  young  man  looked  up  with  imploring 
remonstrance. 

"  Yes,  sir .'"  the  elder  answered,  unrelent- 
ingly.    ''  It's  done  fixed,  same  as  the  law  o' 


OQEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS,  113 

the  Mede  and  Persian.  This  very  night  of 
our  Lord  some  more  o'  your  sweat  and  whut 
else  stuff  you  got  in  you  got  to  come  out. 
Another  reason  I  some  ruther  you  wouldn't 
hitch  with  Hime  Jyner,  and  look  all  tousled 
and  bunged  up  when  you  ris  in  the  pulpit. 
Come,  git  up,  and  march  back,  and  don't  you 
open  your  mouth  nary  one  time  about  whut 
have  took  place  here  this  mornin'.  It'll  do 
you  more  good  than  harm,  and  in  more  ways 
than  one.  But  I  hain't  got  time  to  talk  about 
that  now." 

Taking  him  by  the  arm,  he  raised  him  up, 
and  they  repaired  to  their  tent.  They  were 
not  surprised  to  hear  during  the  day  that 
Hiram  and  Ellen  had  left  the  camp  and  gone 
home.  With  what  httle  reflection  he  had 
time  to  give  to  the  matter,  Henry  rather 
thought  he  would  have  thus  advised.  With 
every  successive  effort  he  rose  higher  in  men's 
opinions.  The  camp  was  continued  only  two 
days  longer  than  the  usual  time,  when,  owing 
to  the  great  strain  on  tent-holders,  it  was 
broken  up,  and  the  services  carried  on  for 
another  week  in  town.  In  this  while  Henry 
saw  Ellen  not  at  aU,  though  after  the  return 
8 


114  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

to  town  he  met  Harriet  daily  at  the  Ingrams'. 
The  rencontre  in  the  woods  became  known 
only  to  those  immediately  interested  in  it, 
and  its  extent  to  not  all  of  them  until  some 
time  afterwards.  Second  only  to  that  he  felt 
in  the  great  revival  was  Mr.  Swinger's  inter- 
est in  the  fortunes  of  his  dear  protege^  and  in 
their  private  interviews  he  spoke  of  them  in 
cheerful  hope. 

''  Go  on,  my  boy,  with  your  juties,  and  at- 
tend to  them  the  best  you  know  how.  Not 
only  the  good  Lord,  but  everybody  else,  have 
respects  of  a  man  that  stand  up  to  his  juty. 
When  this  meetin'  is  over,  then  we  can  see 
how  it  suit  to  move.  Hime  Jyner  settin'  at 
you  ain't  goin'  to  do  you  any  harm,  special 
when  it's  found  out  how  you  stood  up  to 
him.  That  part  got  to  come  out  certain  if 
the  rest  do.  Whatever  you  do,  don't  let 
Tom  know  yit  how  it  all  were.  Tom's  fiery 
hisself.  It's  best  for  him  not  to  know  all 
about  it,  so  he  can  keep  goin'  thar,  and  keep 
you  posted  how  the  land  lays.  You  better 
not  go  anigh  the  Jyners'  yit  awhile.  They 
ain't  no  doubt  Hime's  told  his  people  all 
about  it — bull-headed  feller  that  he  is — and 


OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS.  115 

your  a  goin'  to  the  Mays'  and  not  thar,  it'll 
show  Missis  Jyner  that  you  has  respects  of 
her  feehn's,  and   it'U   make   Ellen   madder 
with  Hime  and  more  determ'ed  to  lean  on 
you,  and  it'll  fetch  things  to  a  head  quicker. 
The  old  lady  come  of  fightin'  stock,  Babtis' 
as  they  was,  and  she  ain't  gom'  to  think  less 
o'  you  for  standin'  squar'  up  to  Hime,  her 
own  son  if  he  do  be;  and  as  for  the  young 
'un,   it'll    sagashuate    her    stronger.     Wim- 
ming,  Henry  Dawster,  is  a  kind  0'  creeters,  I 
don't  keer  how  skeery  they  make  out  they- 
selves,  they  want  them  they  goin'  to  take  up 
with  to  be  feared  o'  nothin',  special  them  that 
has  two  legs.    A  man  got  to  study  -wdmming 
to  find  out  all  about  'em,  Hke  I  had  to  do 
when  I  were  a-courtin'  Hester,  and  they  had 
me  up  a  tree.     Why,  sir,  in  them  times  a  fel- 
ler, and  he  were  Hester's  cousin,  and  he  have 
prop'ty,  and  he  were  a  big  feUer  and  a  fight- 
in'  feller,  and  he  wanted  Hester  for  his  own 
self,  he  did— for  she  were  pretty  as  a  pink— 
and  he  made  all  kind  0'  game  o'  me.    And  I 
took  it,  because  I  were  afeard  o'  mispleasin' 
any  her  relation  and  kinfolks,  and  a  leetle 
more  and  he'd  a  got  her.    At  last,  when  I 


116  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS/ 

see  how  things  was  a  gwine,  I  got  desper't', 
and  so  one  day  I  meets  him  in  town,  and  he 
hadn't  hardly  more'n  said  the  word  leans  to 
me  before  I  ht  on  him,  I  did,  and  I  wore  him 
out.     Now  whut  yon  think  were  the  upshot 
o'  sech  as  that  ?    Well,  sir,  the  very  next  time 
I  see  Hester  she  were  comin'  out  o'  meetin' ; 
for  I  darsn't  not  come  anigh  her  ma's  house ; 
and  when  she  see  me  she  bowed,  she  did,  and 
she  smile;  and  the  next  day,  when  I  went 
thar  all  a-trimbhn' — for  she  were  a  beauty, 
I  tell  you,  boy,  and  she  hold  her  own  now 
along  with  any  of  'em  yit,  as  people  can  see 
for  theyself  —  liit^  when  I  got  thar,  ef  she 
didn't  rise,  and,  as  I  understood  the  motion, 
she  hilt  her  arms  open.     She  always  say  she 
didn't.    All  the  same  to  me.    Info  them  arms 
I  flewed,  same  as  a  sparrer  from  a  hawk,  and 
thar  I  ben  ever  sence,  blessed  be  God !    And 
whut's  more,  her  ma,  that  feller's  own  blessed 
aunt  on  his  father's  side,  she  got  riconciled  to 
the  match,  which  up  to  then  she  ben  horstile, 
same  ef  I  come  of  Tory  people.    iVo,  sir; 
that's  wimming  the  world  over;  and  main 
reason  I  parted  you  and  Hime,  I  were  feared 
o'  your  hght  weight.     But  you  showed  the 


OQEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  II7 

sperrit,  and,  as  the  feller  said,  that  are  suffi- 
cient.    No,  sir;  that  skrimmage  will  go  to 
fetch  the  business  to  a  compermise  quicker 
than  if  it  hadn't  happened.    It  would  of  done 
it  quicker  if  it  have  ben  the  Mays,  which  they 
ain't  that  awful  streenious  about  Babtis'  as 
the  Jyners.     Yit,  my  son,  you  done  right  in 
f oUerin'  your  instink  o'  love.    I  beheve  in  her 
strong  as  pizen,  same  as  I  did  thirty  year  ago. 
A  man  got  no  business  a-wantin'  to  marry 
any  female  girl  without  she  seem  to  him  at 
the  very  top  o'  creation,  so  to  speak,  and  he 
feel  the  instink  o'  love  breakin'  out  all  over 
him  in  spots  big  as  a  sheepskin.     No,  sir .'" 

Henry  smiled,  as  well  at  the  speculations 
of  Mr.  Swinger  on  his  own  romantic  experi- 
ences as  at  the  intimation  thus  given  unin- 
tentionally of  his  partial  regret  that  his  young 
friend's  affections  had  not  found  a  lodgment 
somewhat  further  down  the  river. 


IX. 

Whethek  or  not  Mr.  Swinger  understood 
human  nature  as  well  as  lie  claimed,  results 
justified  Ms  predictions.  Ellen  prudently  re- 
frained from  expressions  of  much  feehng  at 
home.  She  managed  to  see  Tom  Doster  on 
the  day  of  her  return  from  the  camp-ground, 
and  in  the  interview  both  gave  and  received 
some  salutary  advice.  Two  weeks  after- 
wards, when  Mrs.  Joyner  found  out  that 
Henry  had  been  in  the  neighborhood  and 
had  called  only  at  the  Mays',  she  said  to  Hi- 
ram: 

"  You've  made  matters  worse  by  your  fool- 
ish interference.  Ellen  has  seen  that  Henry 
Doster  is  quite  able  to  take  care  of  himself 
against  violent  young  men  like  you,  and 
though  she  don't  say  so  in  those  words,  it's 
plain  to  me  that,  just  as  I'd  be  in  her  place, 
she  thinks  more  of  him  than  she  did  before ; 
and  it  would  have  looked  much  more  decent, 
besides  being  better  every  way,  if  the  young 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  119 

man,  when  he  was  down  here,  could  have 
come  right  on  to  the  house,  instead  of  having 
to  meet  the  child  at  the  Mays'.  The  respect 
he  showed  for  himself  as  well  as  us  all  by- 
keeping  away  proves  to  me  that  he's  a  gen- 
tleman, and  if  he  wasn't  a  Methodist  preacher 
I  don't  know  that  I  should  feel  so  much  op- 
posed to,  it.  As  it  is,  you've  put  it  where  it's 
worth  nobody's  while  to  say  anything  about 
it,  one  way  or  another." 

''I've  done  my  duty,"  answered  Hiram, 
bluntly.  "'  Ellen,  as  she  always  has  done  in 
spite  of  my  advice,  will  do  as  she  pleases, 
especially  when  you  don't  try  to  hinder  her ; 
but  such  things  are  very  far  different  from 
anything  pa  ever  anticipated." 

Then  he  went  out,  in  order  to  let  this 
remark,  as  he  knew  it  would,  rankle  in  his 
mother's  mind. 

Mrs.  May  also  had  her  words  of  indigna- 
tion for  Hiram's  conduct  and  admiration  for 
that  of  Henry. 

"  Why,  Wilham,"  she  said  to  her  son,  "  Sal- 
ly Joyner  ought  to  be  proud  of  such  a  young 
man  for  Ellen's  beau,  and  if  she  wasn't  such 
a  Baptist,  and  so  proud  of  Horeb  because 


120  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS, 

Mr.  Joyner  started  it,  she  would.  Upon  my 
word,  when  I  heard  how  he  had  behaved  to 
Hiram  in  what  was  the  most  imcalled-for 
attack  I  ever  heard  of,  to  say  nothing  of 
camp-meeting  going  on  at  the  time,  I  de- 
clare, Methodist  preacher  as  he  is,  I  couldn't 
but  wish —  However,  I  won't  say  that ;  but 
you  two  boys,  William  May  and  Hir^am  Joy- 
ner— how  have  you  two  boys  abused  your  op- 
portunities !  I've  no  patience  with  either  of 
you !" 

Will  laughed  as  he  turned  away,  for  al- 
ready Mary  Anderson,  whose  father's  land 
and  negroes  were  just  across  the  river,  was 
beginning  to  seem  in  his  eyes  about  the  equal 
of  anybody. 

In  all  this  while  the  mind  of  the  pastor 
of  Horeb  had  been  anxiously  exercised,  in 
spite  of  several  quite  unexpected  immer- 
sions, which  there  was  no  denying  were  ow- 
ing to  the  late  Methodist  revival.  He  tried 
to  be  reasonably  thankful  that  some  httle 
good  had  come  out  of  such  a  whirlypool,  as 
he  was  wont  to  characterize  the  camp-meet- 
ings, but  he  must  brood  over  the  possible  loss 
of  at  least  one  favorite  lamb.     Outside  of  his 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  121 

own  home,  except  when  in  the  pulpit  or  when 
engaged  otherwheres  in  rehgious  (particularly 
denominational)  discussion,  he  was  far  from 
being  a  wordy  person,  and  he  seldom  med- 
dled, except  when  appeal  was  made  to  him, 
in  family  matters  among  his  congregations. 
One  evenirig  Hiram  Joyner  came  over  to  his 
house,  and  after  merely  saluting  Mrs.  Bull- 
ington,  asked  her  husband  for  a  private  con- 
versation. After  the  visitor  had  gone,  the 
groans  and  other  inter jectional  things  from 
Mr.  Bulhngton,  being  more  than  common, 
awakened  some  curiosity  in  his  wife. 

''  Whut  in  the  world  Hiom  Jyner  want  'ith 
you,  Mr.  BulPn'ton,  make  you  look  so  ser'ous  ? 
I  don't  know  when  that  boy  ben  to  this  house 
before." 

''  I  ought  to  look  ser'ous,  'oman,  if  I  don't. 
Hiom  Jyner  ser'ous  too,  and  well  he  mout  be. 
I  didn't  know  tell  now  the  intrust  he  take  in 
Horub,  which  Zekol  Jyner  thought  and  be- 
heved  he  were  foundin'  on  a  rock  when  he 
built  her,  and  him  nor  nobody  else  ever  ex- 
pected sech  a  thing  in  this  whole  ontimely 
world  as  to  see  a  Meth'dis'  comin'  down  here 
and  breakin'  of  her  up  by  marryin'  in^o  a  f am- 


122  OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS. 

bly  that  nother  wants  him  nor  hisn  Them 
reports  about  them  girls  was  jes  the  fact- 
truth,  and  Hiom  Jyner  say  that  if  somethin' 
ain't  done,  and  that  soon,  both  them  f ambhes 
is  broke  off  from  Horub.  For  you  know  well 
enough,  to  my  sorrer,  that  them  Mays  they 
hain't  never  been  the  good,  ginuine  Babtis' 
like  the  Jyners,  and  when  that  preacher,  that 
he's  Tom  Dorrister's  cousin,  and  Tom  a-help- 
in'  him — 7mj  Lord !  And  when  he  have  took 
Ellen  away,  Hiom  say  they  cert'n  to  git  Tom 
and  Harriet  in  time,  and  I  can't  tell  the  time 
I  felt  like  I  ben  a-feehn'  for  this  last  hour. 
When  I  ben  a-countin'  on  Tom  Dorrister  for 
one  o'  the  very  acuil  deacons  when  he  got  a 
little  more  age  and  expeunce  on  his  shoul- 
ders, and  as  for  the  helpin'  support  the  pars- 
tor  accordin'  to  his  prop'ty,  he  ben  the  one 
most  'pennance  was  to  be  put  of  all  of  'em. 
I  wouldn't  of  heUeved  it  of  Tom  Dorrister. 
And  not  only  so,  but  I  always,  tell  this  news, 
counted  on  the  jindin'  o'  ther  banns  when- 
sonever  they  got  married  that  everybody 
never  had  ary  sech  a  thought  but  Ellen  and 
Willom  May,  and  Hiom  Jyner  and  Har'i't. 
And  I'll  jes  tell  you  how  it'll  be.     The  old 


OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS.  123 

man  Swinger'U  be  the  one  to  do  the  marr'in' 
o'  that  Dorrister  preacher  and  Ellen,  and  then 
heHl  hop  lip  and  put  Tom  and  Har'i't  through, 
a  bein'  of  Tom's  cousin,  and  in  course  a  want- 
in'  back  his  fee  he  paid  ole  Br'er  Swinger, 
and  I  sha'n't  be  even  invited  to  nary  one  o' 
their  weddin's.  Ain't  I  got  cause  to  feel 
ser'ous,  'omanf 

"  Oh,  Mr.  Bull'n'ton,"  began  his  affection- 
ate wife,  with  comforting  intent,  '4f  it's  the 
lots  and  lotteries  of  them  young  people — " 

"  Don't  talk  to  me  about  your  lots  and  lot- 
teries, female !"  he  bawled.  "  Your  lots  and 
your  lotteries  don't  do  any  good  to  my  mind, 
the  fix  my  mind's  in." 

The  good  wife  subsided,  and  could  sym- 
pathize only  in  silence  with  the  multitudi- 
nous complainings  of  her  lord  before  sleep 
that  night  came,  imparting  temporary  rehef. 

The  next  morning,  after  awakening,  the 
first  words  that  Mrs.  BuUington  overheard, 
sounding  as  if  they  came  up  from  the  bottom 
of  an  extremely  deep  grave,  were,  ''  Woices : 
the  time  have  come  when  woices  got  to  be 
raised  and  let  out  in  sech  a  quan — daroiis — 
come  off !" 


124  OQEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS, 

About  an  hour  after  his  breakfast  Mr. 
Bulhngton  rode  to  the  Joyners'.  Dismount- 
ing solemnly,  solemnly  hitching  his  horse, 
he  walked  as  if  his  legs  barely  were  able  to 
take  his  gigantic  form  into  the  piazza. 

"Brother  Bulhngton,"  quickly  said  Mrs. 
Joyner,  even  before  taking  his  heavy  hand, 
"you  are  not  well.  I  saw  it  the  minute  I 
laid  eyes  on  you.  Take  that  rocking-chair, 
unless  you  are  afraid  to  sit  out  in  the  open 
air,  and  I'll  have  Nancy  bring  a  dipper  of 
cool  water  from  the  well." 

He  let  himself  down  upon  the  rocker,  and 
waved  his  hand  with  some  defiance  to  the 
open  air,  as  if  the  harm  it  could  do,  added 
to  that  ah'eady  poured  from  other  sources, 
was  merely  contemptible.  And  when  able 
to  speak,  though  in  much  feebleness,  he  an- 
swered :  "  How  do  you  do.  Sister  Jyner  ^  No, 
Sister  Jyner,  I  ain't  afeared  o'  the  ar.  The 
ar  can't  hurt  me.  You  said  somethin'  about 
water,  if  I  heerd  you  correct,  Sister  Jyner, 
and  I'll  acknowledge  my  mind  were  a-runnin' 
on  water  the  minute  you  spoke.  No,  no — oh 
no !"  And  he  raised  a  hand  in  mournful,  firm 
deprecation  as  the  lady  started  into  the  house 


OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS.  127 

to  call  for  the  beverage.  ''  My  mind,  I  say, 
have  been  a-runnin'  on  water  more  here  late- 
ly than  I  'member  it  have  run  thar,  special 
sence  I  were  old  enough  to  be  conwicted  o' 
the  value,  not  so  much  for  the  drinkin'  of  it, 
leastways  for  the  present.  Fact  is,  I  never 
doubted  nor  wished  to  deny  the  good  Lord 
made  water  for  man  and  beast  to  drink ;  ojie 
thing.  But  the  mainest  thing,  if  I  understand 
the  Scriptur',  water,  when  it  were  made,  it 
were  made  for  people  to  git  down  mto  it,  and 
have  theirselves  dipped  in^o  it,  or  ruther,  as 
the  Scriptur'  say,  'baptized  into  it,  by  them 
He  have  app'inted  the  authority  to  wash 
away  their  sins.  And  I  well  'members  how 
that  used  to  be  the  idees  that  Br'er  Zekol 
Jyner  had  on  them  same  subjects,  and  I 
couldn't  begin  to  tell  the  times,  me  and  him, 
that  we  always  went  together  in  our  mind, 
same  ef  we  been  two  black-eye  peas.  But, 
a-last !  him  a  bein'  now  dead  and  goned,  and 
me  left  here  and  a-tryin'  to  peg  away  best  I 
can  by  myself — no,  no.  Sister  Jyner,  I  don't 
want  no  water  to  drink^  a  yit,  a  not  a-denyin' 
I  won't  take  a  gourd  after  a  while.  Whar's 
EUenf 


128  OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS, 

"  Harriet  came  by  here  a  little  while  ago 
and  got  Ellen,  and  they  rode  together  over  to 
Sister  Doster's." 

''Rode  to  Sister  Dorrister's!  TJie  good 
Lord  send  it  were  to  stay  thar!"  he  said, 
with  solemn  heartiness.  "  That  is,  of  course, 
I  mean  when  the  child  git  ready  to  leave  the 
parenchal  rnff.  But  it  give  me,  her  bein' 
away,  a  some  better  chance  o'  empt'in'  my 
mind  of  some  o'  the  load  that  look  like  I  can't 
sleep  o'  nights  a-thinkin'  on  poor  Br'er  Zekol 
Jyner,  and  a  leetle  more  and  I'd  a  lost  my  ap- 
petites for  my  ^actuals." 

They  had  a  long  talk.  Eather  Mr.  Buil- 
ington  dwelt  at  great  length  upon  the  awful 
consequences  of  bringing  into  that  neigh- 
borhood, and  into  houses  which  delicacy 
forbade  him  to  particularize,  such  doctrines 
as  sprinkhng,  falhng  from  grace,  and  in  all 
dreadful  human  probability  infant  baptism. 
The  truth  of  the  whole  business,  in  Mr.  BuU- 
ington's  opinion,  was  that  such  as  that  ought 
to  come  as  nigh  as  anything  in  this  whole 
world  could  come  to  make  the  deceased,  to 
whom  respectful,  affectionate  allusion  had 
just  been  made,  turn  over  in  his  cofdn  if  he 


OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS.  129 

could  do  nothing  else.  At  length  he  ended, 
and  after  taking  the  promised  gourd,  bade  his 
hostess  a  mournful  adieu,  and  moved  away  as 
solemnly  as  he  had  come. 

Mrs.  Joyner,  although  much  more  cultivat- 
ed than  her  pastor,  and  less  narrowed  in  opin- 
ions, yet  reverenced  him  much ;  doubtless  the 
more  for  the  sake  of  the  affectionate  relations 
that  had  existed  between  him  and  her  late 
husband.  Therefore  she  was  much  affected 
by  his  words,  and  when  Ellen  returned  she 
said: 

"  Ellen,  I  know,  of  course,  that  I  have  no 
right  to  your  confidence  or  any  influence 
upon  you,  although  you  are  my  own  and 
only  daughter,  and  I  used  to  have  both.  I 
forgot  to  ask  you  how  is  Sister  Doster." 

'-''  She's  well,  ma,"  answered  Ellen,  lowly, 
holding  her  bonnet  strings  and  looking  as  if 
she  feared  her  mother  was  losing  her  reason. 

^'Ah!  glad  to  hear  it;  but  if  you  have 
made  up  your  mind  to  marry  that  Methodist 
preacher,  I  think  you  owe  it  to  me  and  to 
the  memory  of  your  father  to  say  nothing 
of  poor  dear  old  Brother  Bullington,  who,  if 
anything,  is  worse  off  about  it  than  I've  been 
9 


130  OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS. 

until  now — I  think  yon  owe  it  to  ns  all  to 
have  some  sort  of  understanding  that  you. 
are  not  to  be  interfered  with  in  your  rehgion ; 
that  is,  if  you  haven't  already  determined  in 
your  own  mind  to  give  it  up." 

Ellen  removed  her  bonnet  at  leisure;  re- 
adjusted the  combs  in  her  hair ;  then,  sitting 
down,  answered : 

''  Ma,  Henry  Doster  has  never  mentioned 
Methodism  to  me  a  single  time  that  I  can 
remember.     Mr.  Bulhngton  has  been  here,  I 
see.     I  thought  they  were  his  horse's  tracks 
I  noticed  at  the  gate.     And  he  has  set  you 
more  against  Henry.     Did  he  have  to  say 
anything  about  Tom  f 
''  Some ;  not  very  much." 
''What  (^Z^VZhe  say,  ma  T 
''  He  only  said — that  is,  he  only  intimated 
that  — perhaps   it    wouldn't    have    been  so 
bad  if  Tom—     What  are  you  laughing  at, 
Ellen  f 

''  Beg  pardon,  ma ;  but,  seeing  what  you 
were  going  to  say,  I  was  comparing  it  with 
what  Harriet  told  me  of  her  mother  saying, 
no  longer  ago  than  yesterday,  about  Henry 
Doster,  and  of  her  preference  for  him  over 


OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS.  131 

Tom.     It  is  right  curious.     You  agreed  with 
Mr.  Bulhngton ;  now  didn't  you,  ma  f 

"  Well,  if  you  must  know,  I  did  ;  and  I  wish 
in  my  heart,  if  you  must  have  a  Doster,  that 
it  was  Tom,  and  that  to-morrow." 

''  Well,  ma,"  rephed  the  daughter,  after  a 
httle  sigh,  ^^IVe  heard  you  say  many  and 
many  a  time  that  you  married  the  man  of 
your  own  choice,  although  he  was  not  that  of 
your  parents,  and  that  you  never  had  cause 
to  repent  of  it,  and  now  you  talk  to  me  as 
if  I  had  no  right  to  govern  myself  according 
to  my  own  feehngs.     Yet,  ma,  you  know  that 
if  Tom  Doster  and  I,  no  further  back  than 
six  months  ago,  had  taken  a  fancy  for  each 
other,  you  would  have  been  against  it,  and 
so  would  Mrs.  May  have  been  as  between 
Henry  Doster  and  Harriet,  whom  now  she 
declares  she  would  receive  as  a  son-in-law 
readily  — yes,   thankfully.     What   are   two 
poor,  inexperienced  girls   to  do  in  such  a 
case  f 

Ellen,  notwithstanding  her  inexperience, 
looked  at  her  mother  as  if  she  had  the  argu- 
ment on  her.  But  the  latter  confidently  re- 
sponded :  "No,  because  neither  of  us  had 


132  OGEE  CHE E  CROSS-FIRINGS. 

ever  had  a  thought  of  your  marrying  Dosters 
of  any  kind.  Martha  May  knows  not  what 
she's  talking  about  when  she  talks  that  way ; 
but  she's  no  strong  Baptist  any  way  and 
never  was,  and  she's  carried  away  with  what 
people  talk  about  what  a  great  orator  that 
Henry  Doster  is,  and  going  to  be  a  bishop  or 
some  great  somebody,  when  there's  Tom  Dos- 
ter joining  land  right  next  to  her,  and  the 
industriousest  young  man  in  this  whole  sec- 
tion of  country,  and  would  make  that  plan- 
tation look  another  sort  to  what  it's  been 
brought,  and  he's  always  been  a  good  Bap- 
tist, and  he's  as  good-looking  any  day  as 
Henry  Doster,  and  to  my  taste  better.  And 
then  what  is  to  become  of  me  when  my  only 
daughter  is  following  a  Methodist  preacher 
wherever  they've  a  mind  to  send  him  when 
people  get  tired  of  him  in  one  place  and  an- 
other, and  my  only  son  no  more  managing 
than  Will  May,  and  so  little  company  or  com- 
fort to  his  mother  otherwise  "l  But  I  suppose 
I'll  have  to  trust  that  the  good  Lord  will  take 
care  of  me  somehow  in  my  old  age." 

Then  she  wept  freely,  though  without  bit- 
terness. 


0  GEE  CHE E  CROSS-FIRIXGS.  133 

''  Ma,"  said  Ellen,  in  manner  as  concilia- 
tory as  her  affectionate  spirit  could  employ, 
''I  am  glad  you  spoke  to  me  so  freely  and 
candidly.     I  have  never  asked  Henry  Doster 
about  what  are  to  be  my  rehgious  privileges, 
nor  as  to  the  relations  I  am  to  be  allowed  to 
hold  with  you,  the  more  dear  to  me  because 
you  are  a  vridow,  and  because  brother  is  not 
as  considerate  of  you  as  he  ought  to  be.     He, 
as  you  well  know,  would  no  more  have  ap- 
proved Tom  Doster's  than  he  now  approves 
Henry's  suit  of  me,  although  he  would  have 
swapped  me  to    anybody  who   could  have 
given  to  him  Harriet  in  exchange.     Let  that 
go.     But  I  tell  you  now,  and  you  may  tell 
Mr.  BulUngton  if  you  choose,  that  I  have 
no  idea,  at  least  for  the  present,  of  quitting 
yours  and  my  father's   church.     Somehow, 
ma,  my  parents  have  seemed  to  become  the 
dearer,  if  possible,  to  my  heart  since— since  I 
have  been  indulging  another  feehng."     She 
blushed  deeply,  and  covered  her  face.     ''  Of 
course,"  recovering,  she  continued,  ''  nobody 
can  foresee  what  changes  are  to  come  over 
their  hves;  but  now  my  expectation  is  to 
continue  a  Baptist,  praying  always  to  be  as 


134  OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS. 

good  a  one  as  pa  was  and  as  you  are.  Can 
you  be  satisfied  with  that,  ma  ?" 

'^  ril  have  to  be,  I  suppose." 

''  Still  you'd  feel  safer  if  it  was  Tom  ;"  and 
she  playfully  patted  her  mother's  cheek. 

Removing  the  hand,  yet  not  rudely,  "You 
know  I  cannot  tell  a  falsehood,  Ellen." 

"  Ah  me !"  sighed  the  sweet  girl,  and  went 
up  to  her  chamber. 


X. 

Me.  Bullington's  call  was  on  a  Wednesday. 
On  the  following  Friday  evening  our  two  girls 
went  in  the  Joyner  carriage  to  spend  the  rest 
of  the  week  at  the  Ingrams'.  Tom  had  busi- 
ness in  town  on  the  following  day,  and  as 
that  was  the  stated  Conference  Saturday  for 
Mr.  BuUington's  congregation  in  town,  it  oc- 
curred to  Tom  to  do  his  pastor  a  httle  favor. 
So  riding  up  to  his  gate  toward  sunset,  he 
called  him  out,  and  said : 

"  Brother  BuUington,  I  have  to  go  to  town 
early  in  the  morning  on  some  business,  and 
knowing  your  horse  was  busy  helping  to  put 
in  wheat,  I  thought  I'd  propose  to  take  you 
in  my  gig,  if  it  will  suit  you  and  you  can 
make  it  convenient  to  start  unmediately  after 
breakfast." 

''  Why,  Tommy — why,  yes,  my  son,"  he  an- 
swered. "  It  suit  me  exact.  I  am  mightly 
pushed  to  git  in  my  wheat  before  the  dark 


136  OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS. 

nights  gives  out.  I'll  be  over  to  your  ma's 
time  you  git  your  breakfast,  and — " 

"  Ob,  no,  I  wouldn't  have  you  take  all  that 
trouble.     I'll  ride  over  here." 

"  All  right,  Tommy.  'Light,  and  tell  me 
the  news." 

"-  Sorry  I  can't  stay,  Brother  BuUington ; 
no  special  news  that  I  know  of.  I  am  glad  I 
can  accommodate  you.     Good-evening." 

"  Evenin',  Tommy." 

And  Mr.  BuUington  thought  that  he  felt  a 
Httle  better ;  for  this  was  the  first  visit,  brief 
as  it  was,  that  Tom  had  made  him  since  the 
beginning  of  the  rumors  concerning  him  and 
Harriet  May.  Next  morning  he  had  just 
risen  from  an  early  breakfast,  when,  going  to 
the  door,  he  saw  Tom's  gig  coming  briskly 
toward  his  gate. 

''  My !  my !  You  are  bright  and  yearly  this 
mornin',"  was  his  salutation,  as  he  advanced 
to  meet  him. 

Considering  his  prominence  as  a  public 
man,  Mr.  BuUington  had  to  a  degree  remark- 
able, even  in  his  profession,  a  faculty  of  atten- 
tion, at  times  of  intense  listening.  Serious, 
indeed  saturnine,  in  disposition,  in  the  pres- 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  137 

ence  of  one  or  more  interlocutors  he  had  a 
habit  of  compressing  his  hps,  swelUng  his 
jaws,  and  contracting  his  brows  while  re- 
garding with  solemnest  attention  a  speaker, 
whether  the  latter's  remarks  were  meant  to 
be  taken  as  earnest  or  sportive.  Afterward 
he  would  reflect  most  respectfully,  even  se- 
verely, before  giving  the  answer  which  subse- 
quent silence  might  lead  him  to  beheve  was 
expected.  Joy  or  grief  seemed  to  make  no 
separate  impression  upon  that  countenance, 
except  that  the  former  perhaps  was  rather 
more  agonizing.  He  never  wept,  at  least 
with  his  eyes,  except  on  occasions  of  much 
hilarity,  when,  as  it  appeared,  he  was  suffering 
quick  remorse  for  having  been  momentarily 
seduced  from  his  habitually  solemn  port  by 
manifestations  of  interest  in  the  frivolities  of 
such  a  wicked  world.  On  such  occasions  the 
corners  of  his  mouth  would  let  down,  his 
lower  hp  shrink  and  hide  behind  its  superior, 
all  making  it  appear  that  in  him,  among  the 
various  emotions  of  the  human  heart,  that 
excited  by  humor  was  the  most  sorrowful. 

Tom  was  in  high  spirits.     Any  healthy 
young  man  with  no  uncommon  load  upon 


138  OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS. 

his  conscience  ought  to  have  been  hght  of 
heart  driving  along  the  road  on  such  a  morn- 
ing in  the  fall  of  the  year,  the  sun,  the  air, 
the  forest  leaves,  seeming  as  if  they  had  been 
created  purposely  to  gladden  mankind.  Tom 
rattled  on  gayly  on  this  theme  and  on  that. 
He  believed  that  he  said  some  good  things, 
some  excellent  tilings,  in  fact,  for  one  used 
to  more  serious  work  than  merely  making 
merry.  Some  of  them  must  have  been  ex- 
tremely funny,  judged  by  the  excruciating 
grief  of  his  companion.  When  they  had  got- 
ten as  far  as  what  town  people  called  the 
Two-mile  Branch,  and  the  horse  had  taken  a 
drink  and  set  out  again,  Tom  said : 

''  Brother  BuUington,  I  want  you  to  do  me 
a  favor.  It  won't  take  much  time  or  trouble. 
Get  up  there,  BiU." 

Mr.  BuUington  turned,  and  for  a  while 
looked  savagely  into  Tom's  face,  at  length 
answering:  "You  ought  to  know.  Tommy,  if 
you  don't,  that  I'll  do  what  lay  in  my  power 
for  you,  or  any  of  your  people." 

'^I  thought  so,  or  I  wouldn't  have  taken 
the  liberty  of  asking  you.  Brother  BuUing- 
ton, I  want  you  to  marry  me." 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  139 

"'  The  goodness  gracious,  Tommy !"  in  due 
time  came  the  response.  "Why,  I'll  do  it. 
In  course  I'U  do  it.     When  f 

"  I'll  let  you  know  before  long.  I  thought 
you'd  do  me  that  favor.  The  truth  is,  I 
wouldn't  feel  exactly  right  in  giving  the  wed- 
ding-fee I've  laid  up  to  anybody  else  than 
you,  whom  ma  and  I  and  all  of  us  think  so 
much  of." 

Mr.  BuUington  would  surely  have  cried 
now  if  he  had  known  how.  Concentrating 
his  gaze  more  and  more  fiercely  upon  Tom, 
he  writhed  and  writhed,  as  Tom,  waving  his 
whip  now  and  then,  enlarged  upon  the  pleas- 
ure it  would  be  to  him  always  hereafter  to 
remember  that  his  own  pastor,  and  his  wife's 
pastor,  and  the  pastor  of  his  parents,  and  the 
pastor  of  his  wife's  parents,  and  the  pastor 
of —  But  here  they  reached  the  Gateston 
Hotel.  After  alighting,  Tom  turned  the  horse 
over  to  the  hostler,  and  said : 

"  Let  us  go  into  the  hotel  parlor  for  a  little 
while.  Brother  BuUington.  I  want  to  see  a 
couple  of  gentlemen  there  for  a  few  minutes, 
after  which  you  and  I  can  continue  our  con- 
versation." 


UO  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

Entering,  Mr.  Bnllington  looked  in  slow, 
menacing  astonishment,  first  at  Mr.  Swinger, 
then  at  Henry  Doster. 

''  Well  met,"  said  the  former,  rising,  taking 
Mr.  BulUngton's  hand,  hfting  it  up,  and  shak- 
ing it  cordially.  ''  How  do,  Br'er  Bnirn't'n  'F 
Mornin',  Tom.  Little  'head  o'  time,  but  better 
too  soon  than  too  late,  special  on  the  arrant 
you  come  on  this  mornin'.  Take  a  seat,  Br'er 
BuU'n't'n,  and  tell  me  all  about  yourself  and 
fambly.  Hain't  see  you,  not  to  shake  hands 
'long  with  you,  sense  that  day  at  the  Shoals." 

After  salutings  and  seatings  all  around,  Mr. 
BuUington  regarded  Mr.  Swinger  sternly,  as  if 
to  ward  against  assault.  But  the  latter  soon 
put  him  at  as  much  ease  as  it  was  possible 
for  him  to  feel  in  the  company  of  dangerous 
heretics,  who,  plausible  without,  within  were 
possessed  of  malignity  and  subtlety.  After 
declaring  over  and  over  again  how  glad  he 
was  to  see  his  brother  BuUington,  and  to 
notice  how  well  he  held  his  own,  and  if  any- 
thing how  gladder  to  be  told  that  Mrs.  BuU- 
ington and  the  children  were  well  as  com- 
mon, and  after  getting  from  Tom  Doster  such 
a  promise  as  there  would  be  no  going  back  on 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  141 

to  help  Mr.  BiiUington  in  getting  in  his  wheat 
during  the  dark  nights,  he  said  : 

"  Henry,  I  don't  think  I  ever  told  you  how 
bad  Br'er  BuU'n't'n  got  me  one  day  at  the 
Shoals.     I  no  doubt  Tom's  heerd  it." 

''  Now,  now,  Br'er  Swinger,  said  Mr.  Bull- 
ington,  ''  you  goin'  to  tell  on  your  own  self 
that  a  way  V  But  they  knew  that,  in  spite 
of  such  remonstrance,  he  was  quite  willing 
for  the  story  to  go  on. 

"  Oh,  yes ;  a  good  thing's  a  good  thing, 
Br'er  BuU'n't'n,  and  when  they  on  me,  I'm 
bound  to  let  t'other  people  git  the  good  of  it, 
even  if  /  can't.  Well,  you  see,  Henry,  it  were 
a  one  Sadday  evenin',  I  reck'n  it  ben  about, 
or  mighty  nigh  about,  three  year  ago ;  ain't 
it,  Br'er  BuU'n't'n  f 

''Be  three  year  Sadday  before  the  fourt' 
Sunday  o'  next  mont'." 

''  That's  it.  You  see  he  ain't  forgot.  Well, 
sir,  after  preachin'  that  mornin'  to  about  a 
handful  o'  people  at  our  poor  httle  Hopewell 
meetin'- house  t'other  side  of  Iggeechee,  as  I 
rid  by  the  stow  at  the  Shoals  on  my  way  back 
home,  I  see  Br'er  BuU'n't'n  and  a  whole  lot 
o'  men  thar  in  the  peazer,  and  I  thought  I'd 


142  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

'light  and  stop  and  liowdy,  and  swap  a  few 
words  with  'em  all ;  for  Br'er  BuU'n't'n  know 
I  always  liked  him,  if  he  is  sech  a  rambunc- 
tious Babtis'.  Him  nor  none  of  'em  notice 
me  till  they  see  me  comin'  up  the  peazer 
steps,  because  for  why  at  that  very  minute 
he  were  firin'  away  at  a  ter'ble  rate  agin  we 
Meth'disses,  and  his  words,  jes  as  I  come  up, 
wuz  to  the  effect  that  if  John  the  Harbiniger 
had  ben  a  Meth'dis',  the  Scriptur'  would  'a 
named  him  that  stid  o'  John  the  Babtis'; 
and  he  up,  he  did,  and  as  he  howdied  along 
with  me  he  say,  '  And  here's  Br'er  Swinger, 
as  good  a  man  as  they've  got,  and  he  can't 
deny  my  words.'  Well,  sir,  you  better  believe  ! 
It  were  a  Babtis'  crowd,  as  you  know  they're 
awful  strong,  up  and  down,  on  both  sides  o' 
the  Iggeechee.  Yit,  I  thought,  never  do  not 
take  up  the  old  man's  channelge,  though  I 
weren't  in  whut  a  body  might  call  flghtin' 
fix,  a  not  a  expectin'  no  sech.  And  then  it 
were  somehows,  for  the  onhest  time  in  my 
life,  my  idees,  and  my  thoughts,  and  my  ar- 
gyments,  and  my  words,  and  my  speeches, 
everiji\\mg  I  had,  they  all  got  that  jumbled 
together,  and  they  got  that  piled  up  on  top 


OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS.  143 

o'  one  'notlier  that  I  jes  had  to  stop,  and  to 
set  down,  and  see  if  I  couldn't  ontangle  'em 
and  gether  'em  in  hand.    And  then,  right  thar, 
at  the  very  minute  I  begin  to  think  I  see 
dayhght, '  Br'er  Swinger !'— you  might  a  heerd 
him  a  mile— he  bawled  out,  he  did,  and  he 
hollered,  and  say:  '  Ah,  Br'er  Swinger, it  were 
John  the  Babtis'.     No  Meth'disses  in  them 
days— leastways  o'  them  names.     No  wonder 
you  speechless ;  but  if  you  wuz  able  to  talk, 
and  could  stand  up  and  talk  all  day  long, 
I'd  jes  take  a  cheer  and  set  down  calm,  and 
'casion'ly  fling  in  a  primmary  few  remarks, 
and  ask  you  to  p'int  out  the  chapter  and  the 
veerse  whar  they  tells  about  the  Meth'disses 
in  the  Grood  Book.'    And  then  he  shook  his 
big  sides,  and  the  t'others  they  all  broke  out 
in^o  a  gener'l  haw-haw.     Well,  sir,  bless  youi- 
soul !    All  of  a  suddent  I  got  so  mad  that  for 
jes  about  a  second  if  I  didn't  feel  hke  hauhn' 
off  and  lettin'  old  Br'er  BuU'n't'n  have  it  right 
in  the  mouth,  for  flingin'  sech  a  laugh  on  me, 
onprepar'd  for  it  as  I  were.    But  I  know  sech 
as  that  won't  begin  to  do,  because  I  know 
Br'er  BuU'n't'n  have  big  a  fist  as  me,  and  it 
wouldn't  do  nohow." 


144  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

Here  all  broke  into  heartiest  laughter  ex- 
cept Mr.  BuUington,  who,  what  time  he  was 
not  wiping  his  overflowing  eyes,  sat  heaving 
his  vast  frame  and  glaring  npon  the  narrator 
with  a  ferocity  whose  wretchedness  was  ap- 
palling. 

"And  so  finuil,"  resumed  the  historian  of 
Ogeechee  border  warfare,  "  what  you  reck'n 
I  done  ?  Why,  sir,  I  whirled  in,  I  did,  and  I 
thought  I'd  try  laughin'  myself  too.  But 
you  all  know  what  sort  o'  laughin'  that 
is  when  you  know  people  see  you  feel 
more  like  cryin'  than  anything  else ;  and 
so  the  more  I  tried  to  laugh,  the  more 
the  whole  kerhoot  of  'em  laughed  shore 
enough ;  and  at  last  I  got  up,  and  got  away, 
and  got  on  my  horse,  and  banished  off  from 
thar." 

It  looked  as  if  the  agony  of  Mr.  BuUington 
would  soon  become  unendurable ;  but  at  this 
moment  the  hght  tread  of  ladies'  feet  was 
heard  in  the  hall,  and  presently  the  landlady 
of  the  hotel  and  Mrs.  Ingram  entered,  fol- 
lowed by  Ellen  and  Harriet.  The  last  two 
were  bonneted  and  beaming  red.  After  shak- 
ing hands  with  her  pastor,  EUen  said :  ''  Mr. 


OQEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS,  145 

Biillington,  Tom  told  you,  I  suppose,  that  we 
couldn't  think  of  anybody  else  marrying  us 
but  you." 

"Why,  Ell'n— why,  my  child— why,  yes; 
but  I  thought— why,  whar's—  You  goin'  to 
marry  Tom  ?  and  that  not  under  the  paren- 
chalrufff 

"  We'll  explain  all  that  afterwards,  Brother 
Bulhngton,"  said  Tom,  as  he  put  into  his 
hands  the  marriage  license,  out  of  which,  as 
he  opened  it  with  fumbling  hands,  dropped 
two  twenty -dollar  gold  pieces.  With  diffi- 
culty the  preacher  found  his  spectacles,  and 
when  the  coins,  so  far  beyond  what  he  had 
ever  received  for  such  a  service,  were  lodged, 
one  in  one  pocket  of  his  trousers  and  the  other 
in  another,  he  performed  the  rite  as  well  as  he 
could.  Then  sitting,  and  putting  his  hands 
in  his  pockets,  he  looked  around  in  abject 
despair.  Then  Mr.  Swinger  rose,  and,  as 
Henry  and  Harriet  took  their  places,  said: 
"  Here  come  another  batch,  Br'er  Bull'n't'n. 
Marryin',  hke  everything  else,  ketchin',  you 
know.     Be  ready." 

When  all  was  spoken  except  the  final 
prayer,  Mr.  Swinger  turned  and  said :  "  Bre'r 
10 


146  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

Buirn't'n,  this  couple  is  Meth'dis'  and  Babtis' 
both,  you  know,  and  it  take  two  of  us  to 
hitch  tliem  to  the  traces ;  so  you  got  to  make 
the  praar." 

Mr.  Bulhngton,  huge  as  he  was,  jumped  as 
one  roused  from  a  dreaming  sleep.  Not  hav- 
ing kept  up  at  all  with  current  events,  his 
dazed  eyes  wandered  around  the  room  while 
he  remained  seated. 

''  You  hear  me  ?"  said  Mr.  Swinger,  in  com- 
manding tone.  "Take  them  hands  out  o' 
them  pockets,  and  git  up  out  o'  that  cheer, 
and  ask  the  good  Lord  to  send  His  whole 
rattermie  of  angels  down  here  on  this  young 
man  and  this  young  'oman  that's  jes  ben 
jinded  in  the  banes.  Out  with  'em,  and  up 
with  you,  and  when  you're  thoo  I  got  an- 
other gold  piece  for  you." 

That  day  was  remembered  by  Mr.  Bulling- 
ton  as  the  most  eventful  in  all  his  experi- 
ence. About  six  months  afterward,  while 
telling  of  it  to  the  family  of  liis  brother  Cum- 
mins, near  Fenn's  Bridge,  among  other  things 
he  said : 

"Hadn't  ben  I  were  a  pubhc  man,  I'd  a 


OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS.  147 

ben  that  nonpluslied  and  pulled  to  pieces  I'd 
a  forgot  how  to  talk  and  how  to  pray  up  to 
the  'casion.  You  see,  when  it  first  got  out 
about  them  young  people  a  keepin'  comp'ny, 
people  put  it  that  Tom  were  after  Sister 
May's  daughter,  and  his  cousin  for  Sister 
Jyner's.  And  they  not  disputed  it,  so  they 
could  git  the  mothers,  and  special  the  broth- 
ers, to  firin'  away  at  the  wi^ong  feller,  a  hopin' 
that  way  they'd  other  take  some  sort  o'  shine 
to  the  right'n,  or  leastways  git  riconciled  to 
him.  And  bless  your  soul !  it  done  it ;  that 
is,  with  the  mothers,  which  they  was  the 
mainest  ones.  Then  it  were  they  concluded 
to  strike  while  the  iron  were  hot,  to  keep 
down  any  more  fussin'  when  it  were  found 
out  how  the  land  lay  shore  enough.  They 
wanted  Emerly  Ingram  to  let  'em  have  the 
thing  over  at  her  house ;  but  Emerly  were 
afeard  o'  hurtin'  feehn's,  and  so  they  immer- 
grated  to  the  tavern.  And  I  tell  you  I  were 
nonplushed ;  but  old  Br'er  Swinger,  with  aU 
his  predijice,  say  I  come  out  splendid,  and  he 
never  knowed  till  that  mornin'  no  more'n 
t'other  people  which  was  which  among  'em. 
And  when  Hemy  Dorrister  hand  me  that 


148  OGEECHEE   CROSS-FIRINGS. 

twenty  -  dollar  gold  piece,  and  I  tuck  it,  a 
seein'  his  feelin's  would  be  hurted,  and  old 
Br'er  Swinger's  too,  if  I  didn't  take  half  the 
fee,  I  say  to  myself,  here's  a  Meth'dis'  that  if 
he's  nothin'  else  he's  liber'l.  And  if  you  be- 
lieve me.  Sister  Cummins,  them  female  moth- 
ers actuil  laughed,  and  as  for  Sister  Jyner, 
she  actuil  cried,  and  both  for  joy,  when  they 
heerd  the  news.  And  them  boys — well,  they 
see,  matter  o'  course,  it  were  too  late  to  call 
off  and  open  on  another  trail.  Willom  May, 
he  laughed  too ;  for  he  were  already  prom- 
ised to  Mary  Anderson,  that  she's  now  his 
lawful  wife.  As  for  Hiom,  he  looked  mon- 
st'ous  cowed ;  and  he  do  yit.  Look  like  he 
don't  feel  like  puttin'  into  young  wimming's 
society,  nor  young  men's  nuther,  but  he  ruth- 
er,  when  he  go  about  at  all — he  ruther  take  it 
out  in  roamin'  in  a  flock  by  hisself.  Har'i't, 
jes  as  I  expected,  have  took  up  with  the 
Meth'dis'.  Two  kind  o'  wimming  I've  no- 
tussed  in  my  expeunce  o'  people.  One  of 
'em  draws,  and  the  tother  lets  other  people 
drag  them.  You,  for  instance.  Sister  Cum- 
mins, you  drawed  Br'er  Cummins  from  'mong 
the  Meth'dis',  because  he  see  you  wuz  right, 


OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS,  149 

while  Har'i't,  like  her  cousin  Emerly,  were 
drug  off.  But  it  some  consolation  that  it 
were  by  a  young  man  that  if  he's  nothin' 
else  he's  liber'l." 


THE  END. 


BY  R.  M.  JOHNSTON. 

OGEECHEE  CROSS-FIRINGS.      Illustrated.      8vo,  Taper 
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Jvi^^^ci-yj 

J73 

Johnston,  R 

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Ogeechee 

cross-firing 

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M542491 


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